Stains of Time
by Synweaver
Summary: "After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began." "You began at me?" A smile. "I did." (M for language, violent content and adult situations)
1. Hectic Reunions

_Alert whomever the fuck cares about this sort of crap. I'm writing an actual story again. Y'know, if that actually matters at all._

_Bah. This is what I get for being happy._

_You guys ever read Solace Before the Storm by Way of the Sheikah? Well I wanted to make something in that vein without of course being a copy paste of it. So expect my usual brand of mannerisms and personalities. _

_Finally, though I hate to ask for leniency, forgive me if this isn't as strong as it could be. As always I'll accept constructive criticism but cut me a little slack otherwise._

_Okay, I think that about it does it. If you have any questions leave them in your review and I'll address them when I can._

_Deep breath now._

_Ciao_

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><p>It wasn't hard to notice when Shepard and Tali first began their relationship. There were the little cues that the crew picked up on. How they paid more attention to each other, engaged in the other's practices more often, generally spending more time together. This drew rumors but nothing definitive. For most of the crew, it was a wonderful thing to talk about as it gave them something else to fight for.<p>

The others either didn't care or were not too happy about the idea of them being together.

So fuck those people.

Anyway, the first big sign they got was the actual recruitment mission itself. They had to go to Haestrom to recruit Tali for the fight against the Collectors. Like everything else they had done so far, it sounded easy by comparison.

With Shepard filling the tech aspect to combat, he brought along Thane and Grunt as the biotic and combat aspects to balance the situation out. Really it made sense. Thane and Shepard would hang back, sniping and throwing out biotic and tech attacks respectively while Grunt charged right in with his Claymore shotgun and blitzed the Geth to bits. He could shrug off the sun's effects thanks to his armor and Shepard and Thane stuck back in the shade and provided support.

A sound theory in mind, but the execution was anything but. Surprisingly, it wasn't Grunt that broke formation as they had all expected. No it was Shepard who ran off headfirst into the fray, caution thrown to the wind. However he had managed it, he had overclocked his omni-tool and it was raining down Overloads and Incinerates on all the Geth.

For Thane, Grunt, and the Quarians there, it was like watching the wrath of a god fall upon the Geth. By the time they finally caught up with Shepard, he was ripping the head off of a Geth Colossus with a feral expression on his face. Thane had seen the same expression before and it was on his face after he saw what had happened to Irikah.

_Obviously this woman means a great deal to him. I shall have to ensure her safety as well then. _He had recalled thinking this at the time in one of his many moments of Solipsism.

When the mighty beast exploded, Shepard quickly moved to the door and knocked hard enough to leave a dent in it. Evidently he was not in the mood for playing around. When the door opened, his shields ended up getting a shot from Tali's shotgun.

"Shepard! That was you? Oh Keelah I'm so sorry I didn't mean to-" She cut herself off when Shepard just strode up to her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him. She blushed deeply at the contact and he just had a wide, content smile on his face as he held her. Tali's embarrassed state made her miss the pleased sound Shepard made as he held her close. Eventually though, he pulled away, keeping his hands on her shoulders and looking right into her eyes.

"Look on the bright side Tali. At least it was only me you shot and not somebody important." He grinned and she shook her head, smiling all the while.

"Bosh'tet."

"Gotta live up to my reputation. Now then, can you join me now Tali? I'd hate to have to rescue you again. It would be the only way we could talk at this rate." She nodded, looking through her data on her omni-tool quickly.

"I promised to see this mission through and I did. Now I'll join you Shepard. If the Admiralty doesn't like it then can go to hell. I just watched my whole team die." She moved to his side, the deaths of those who came with her hanging over hear heavily.

"Maybe not the whole team ma'am." She looked up to see the red and gold suit of Kal'Reegar as he entered the observatory.

"Reegar! You made it!"

"Hah, I and damn near everyone else. If this is your old captain, then all those tales you told of him were nowhere near the real thing. It was like watching the Ancestors themselves rain down heavy fire on the Geth." Shepard chuckled at the praise.

"Nice to meet you Kal'Reegar. Sorry I didn't say hello before taking the fun out of your day." The marine laughed and gave a proud, respectful salute to Shepard.

"If that's what you call taking the fun, I can't wait to see what you call fun in the first place sir." He let his hand drop and looked to Tali. "Unfortunately ma'am, we should get back to the Fleet. At least before more Geth show up."

"Actually Reegar, I won't be going with you. I'm joining Commander Shepard." Reegar smiled and gave her a salute as well.

"I'll pass on the data then." He looked back to Shepard. "Take care of her Commander. She's your problem now." With that, he left to return home.

"Hmm my problem now huh? Well despite the Cerberus thing, do you plan to cause trouble Tali?" He grinned at her and she returned it.

"Only to you and Garrus. Everyone else I'll probably just sick Chatika on." He laughed and headed out with her at his side.

"If Chatika is what you send to everyone else, I shudder to think what you'll do to Garrus and I. Probably hack our omni-tools to do something indecent every second."

"Bah. Not creative enough. I was thinking of hacking those implants of yours. Make you dance like my own little puppet!"

"Oh no! The truth has been revealed! The great Shepard is just the puppet and the evil Tali'Zorah is pulling his strings!" They had a good laugh at it all, trading jokes and friendly banter on the trip back to the shuttle. On the shuttle however, Grunt kept insisting that Shepard teach him, "how to bring hell down on my enemies!"

Shepard kept saying he'd tell him when he was older.

They eventually landed back in the Normandy's shuttle bay, Grunt and Thane moving back to their quarters while Shepard gave Tali a tour of the ship.

"So over here we have a brand new human invention. We call it, an elevator that is faster than the piece of crap elevator on the SR1. Marvel at it's speed and lack of crappy elevator music!" She giggled at his comments and followed him inside said elevator, watching him set the destination for deck two.

"Very impressive! Who would have thought it would take the Normandy blowing up to get a better elevator!" As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them and covered her vocalizer while looking at Shepard. "Keelah Shepard I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring that up." He simply shrugged and pulled her hand away gently, making her blush again at the contact.

"It's okay Tali. It really doesn't bug me that much. I find ignoring it really tends to help anyway." She shook her head sorrowfully.

"That's not healthy Shepard."

"Nor is charging into a warzone full of trained synthetics who don't feel pain or fear without regard for strategy or caution. But I did it anyway, and look how it worked out. I got you, most of your people got out safely, happy ending." She sighed heavily and looked down at her feet.

"I don't know how you do it Shepard. Shrug all this off like it was nothing." She saw his hand grab her chin and gently tilt her head back up to face him, deepening her blush in the process.

"May you never find out Tali. Otherwise you'll become exactly like me." He looked up at the ceiling and exhaled hard. "I don't want to be me." He let go of her and stepped back as the door opened up to the CIC. He stepped out and headed left, her following after a short pause over his words. They passed through the armory and into the communication room where Jacob was waiting.

A short bit later and she had left, fuming after Jacob's last comment.

_An AI?! A Keelah damned AI?! Did those idiots learn nothing from us! I hope it kills all of them! _

She had moved back into the main wing of the CIC and was going back to the elevator when a voice stopped her.

"Excuse me? Miss Zorah?" She didn't want to deal with who this was but she was a Quarian. Others first, always.

"Yes?" The voice belonged to a redheaded woman with a cheery smile on her face. Like all other crewmembers, she wore the standard Cerberus uniform.

"I'm Yeoman Kelly Chambers. I mainly function as the Normandy's psychologist. Though I know there is bad blood between Cerberus and the Quarian people, you can come to me whenever you need it, if you need it of course." Tali deflated slightly from this but her guard was still up.

"Right now I'm wondering how hard I should laugh when your AI kills you all. Is that something you really want to get into Chambers?" To her surprise, Kelly only laughed in reply.

"Oh my. That does sound like fun. But I need to get back to my post. Still, if you need anything, don't be afraid to ask." Shepard exited the tech labs at that time, greeting Kelly before moving back into the elevator, Tali's eyes following him the whole time.

"Well Tali, shall we finish the tour?" She nodded and moved back at his side, getting as close as she could without being too noticeable. As the doors closed, Kelly smiled from her workstation at the two of them.

_Looks like Tali has more than feelings of friendship for her Commander._

They continued their tour, ending at Engineering where she was introduced to Ken and Gabby.

"It'll be great to work with someone of your experience ma'am!" gabby cheerfully saluted Tali.

"Aye. It'll be great tah have another grease monkey down here." Ken's comment made Shepard laugh and earned him an elbow from Gabby.

"Sorry to disappoint Ken but she's a little more than that. She's your new Chief Engineer." Tali's gaze snapped to Shepard at that.

"I'm the Chief Engineer? Shepard that's kind but I don't-"

"Tali, do I or do I not run this ship? Besides if I put either of these schmucks in the role they'd do nothing and make the other do all the work."

"I resent that Commander!"

"Bite me Ken." They all had a good laugh and Shepard ended the tour at Tali's workstation.

"Jacob should have gotten you all the clearance you'll need by now Tali. If you need anything else, don't be afraid to ask. My cabin is up on deck one anyway so come up whenever you need me." With a parting smile, he left her to her work and headed back to his own. Like she always did, she watched him go with a dreamy smile on her face. Still, work had to be done and as Chief Engineer after all…

It was some hours later before it had become the human time for dinner. She wasn't looking forward to the nutrient paste but what other choice did she have. She set the maintenance cycles to run while she headed up to deck 3, Ken and Gabby following her out.

"Time for grub eh Chief? Let's hope Rupert put those new supplies to good use." It would have been a delightful prospect were it not for her physiology.

"I'm dextro remember? And even then I have to eat purified food." Ken hit his hand on his face, a gesture she didn't understand, and groaned.

"Sorry ma'am. Plum forgot. Didn't mean tah be a jerk." She raised an eyebrow at this.

"You didn't mean to, yet you did anyway. Do you think anything through?" That drew a laugh out of Gabby.

"If he did he'd have never gotten anywhere. Ken works on impulse and I clean up the mess. Pretty soon I'll clean it up by tossing him out the airlock."

"Ack! You're horrible woman!"

"Like you could last without me."

The doors opened to deck 3 and the engineers stepped out, moving to the kitchen where some of the other crew and ground team were.

"Here you go Officer Vakarian!" The smiling face of Rupert Gardner gave the dextro meal to Garrus, the turian looking at it with surprise.

"I expected something…well more along the lines of military crap. Instead I get this which now I feel bad about eating." Rupert just chuckled.

"If you like I'll throw it out and slop something out of a can onto your plate." Garrus chuckled as well before moving to a table.

"No this is good! I'd rather not eat out of the trash like Grunt!"

"Hey!" The perfect Krogan shouted out, a mouthful of who-knows-what spewing out in the process.

Tali smiled at it all. Even on a Cerberus ship there was the same life back on the old Normandy. She eventually got a tube of nutrient paste, with an apology from Rupert for not having anything better, and grabbed a seat off in the corner for a meal alone.

As luck would have it, good luck in this case, she didn't get to eat alone.

"Care for some company Tali?" She looked up to see Shepard, Garrus and Thane standing around her table.

"Oh! Sure!" Shepard smiled and grabbed a seat across from her, with Thane at his right and Garrus next to Tali.

"So since Thane is the only one at this table who wasn't part of our first crazy-ass adventure, I suggest we waste his perfect memory with stories from the good old days." Garrus' wit had improved over the couple years and it showed as it drew a giggle from Tali and a smirk from Shepard.

"Now now that's not fair. He's too busy remembering how many kills he has over you Garrus." Thane smiled at Shepard's reply, chucking internally when Garrus groaned.

"Dammit Shepard you should know by now. I am the best in the galaxy. The end. Besides, I'm up by five from Samara's recruitment."

"You were in the lead until Haestrom Garrus. I am currently in the lead by 13 Geth units."

"Those do not count! I wasn't there for those and I know Grunt and Shepard weren't paying attention."

The four chatted through their meals about many things, including Thane and Garrus still bickering about their contest. Even with Haestrom's trauma still fresh in her mind, Tali found plenty of opportunity to smile and laugh along with the mood at the table. Eventually they all parted, Garrus returning to the Main Battery and Thane back to his quarters. She was about to go back to engineering when a hand on hers stopped her. She looked at whose hand it was and found it was Shepard's, drawing another deep blush from her.

"Is everything okay so far Tali? The crew hasn't been giving you any trouble?" His concern was touching as always and she found herself wishing she could hold his hand.

"No. Ken and Gabby are nice and Rupert even apologized for only having nutrient paste but it's been alright otherwise."

"Well that's good. I'd hate to have to fire them out of the cannon into a sun for ruining your day." She smiled and giggled softly.

"Preferential treatment Commander? That doesn't sound very smart of you." He smiled at her, a soft, caring smile at that.

"What can I say? I'm protective of those I care about." He got up after that and went back to his own work, leaving her to smile lovingly at his words.

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><p><em>So how was that for a start? Leave suggestions and constructive criticism as you like.<em>

_I don't have a regular schedule so expect updates to be sporadic at best._

_Ciao_


	2. Face the Truth

_Here we go. Chapter 2. I'm actually nervous._

_As always, I'm open to suggestions_

_Right then, curtains rise_

_Ciao_

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><p>It had been a couple weeks now since Tali first came aboard the new Normandy. Despite their flag, most of the crew had been polite and welcoming of her. Those that were not tended to get the less than pleasant jobs as penalty.<p>

Of course that was if they weren't fired outright.

Still, it was relatively smooth day in day out for those two weeks. Shepard came to visit every night on his rounds and it quickly became her favorite moment of the day. The others had stopped by at least once to introduce themselves as well.

She quickly grew not to like Miranda, finding her blind loyalty to Cerberus irritating. Plus during one of Shepard's visits, she saw Miranda's eyes roaming over Shepard's body. The spikes of jealousy and possessiveness were rearing themselves in her again. She hadn't felt them since back on the SR1 with Liara and Ashley. Even then she was still trying to determine just what these feelings were. Understanding them didn't help much as it came too little too late.

But now he was back again and she had a second chance. Still, she'd have to do something about the competition.

Jack, despite also having the same desire for Shepard, she grew to like. Her violent personality aside, she became a friend in a short time. Their mutual hatred of Cerberus helped those matters along as they spent many hours talking about creative methods to kill Cerberus troops.

Zaeed reminded her much of Wrex, only with revenge fueling him. She sat through one of his stories once and thought she saw a pained expression cross his face at the end. It was gone as quickly as it arrived but it still made her worry.

Grunt never had much to say beyond wanting to fight. When he came back from Tuchanka, he had managed to rein it in somehow. Whatever Shepard did for him down there, she was hoping he wouldn't have to do it again. Him being on one of the most violent planets in the galaxy did not ease her fears.

Jacob eventually came by to apologize for what he felt was poor behavior when she first came aboard. Unlike Miranda, he was no loyalist to Cerberus and that seemed to work in his favor in her eyes. Still, an apology was made and that was enough for her.

Garrus she already knew well, but his betrayal had changed him into something worse. He wasn't quite as consumed as Zaeed was but it was getting there and fast. She hoped that Shepard could talk him out of it.

Both Thane and Samara were polite to her though she could tell through their body language that something was bothering them. When she asked about it, both turned quiet and she took the cue to leave, apologizing on the way.

Perhaps the one person who got her attention the most, besides Shepard anyway, was the resident thief. Kasumi proved to be a very interesting person to talk to and they were quickly becoming fast friends. Kasumi was actually quite skilled in technical matters and easily kept up with Tali as she went on and on about engineering work.

Still, it was one day in particular that still gave Tali pause. It was only a week ago now but when she thought of it she found herself stopping whatever she was doing so she could focus on it.

It began on her lunch break when she grabbed her food from Rupert and went looking for a table. Unfortunately, all the others were full so she decided to move back to deck four to eat there. As she was waiting for the elevator to come to deck three, Kasumi got her attention.

"No good company to eat with Tali?" She turned to face the thief and shook her head.

"No not that. Just no room. I can at least work while I eat this way." Kasumi released a dramatic sigh and pulled Tali into her room instead.

"Uh-uh. No one should have to eat alone. Especially not the cute people." The comment distracted her long enough for Kasumi to seat them both as she grabbed her meal and set it across her lap.

"I am not 'cute' Kasumi."

"Oh yes you are. For example, what do you think about Shepard?"

The thief was proven correct when Tali eagerly talked all about Shepard and their adventures together. Kasumi would eventually tell Shepard that she spoke about him in a "rainbows and butterflies" sort of way.

"I think it's obvious enough by now Tali but you must really love him." Tali almost choked on her paste from that.

"What? I don't!" She felt pain suddenly. "Even if I did," More pain, "he couldn't return it. He deserves to be happy with someone and…"

"You think you can't give it to him." Tali growled and shook her head standing up to pace about the room.

"I know I can't. It's not easy being a Quarian, let alone being with one. Shepard shouldn't have to…he shouldn't have to lower himself like that…" A frustrated sigh came from Kasumi and she stood up as well.

"Lower himself? The galaxy's perception of your people be damned Tali. Plus, you're a hero in case you forgot. Saved the Citadel and all that. Ringing any bells?" Tali shook her head again, believing she was still right.

"I can't do it Kasumi. I can't love him."

"Can't or won't?"

"I can't!"

"Then prove it to me!"

"How?"

"Look me in the eyes and tell me you don't love him."

Tali looked right at Kasumi, the words on her lips.

"I don't lo-" She cut herself with a yelp of pain, falling to her knees, Kasumi at her side in an instant.

"Huh. Guess that wasn't a load after all." Tali snapped up to glare at her.

"You knew this would happen?!"

"No it was an extranet rumor. But it did prove my point at least. You love him Tali, no running from it now." The room descended into silence, the two women simply staring at each other all the while.

"I can't love him Kasumi. It wouldn't be fair to him. He deserves someone whose face he can see, whose skin he can feel, whose lips he can kiss any time he wants. I can't give that to him Kasumi. What kind of person would I be to try and put that kind of life on him?" The thief was quiet for a while, moving over to the large window and looking out at the void.

"Keiji and I never had a fair relationship in hindsight. Our door could have been kicked down at any time and the both of us killed or arrested. To us, that didn't matter. We had each other and that was what was important." She paused to look back at Tali. "I'm not saying it won't be easy being with Shepard, but I am saying that not even trying would be the biggest mistake of your life Tali. If he doesn't return the feeling, so be it. At least you tried to find out. Otherwise you'll just spend your life wondering the 'what ifs' of it all." She looked back into the void.

"Like I do every night now. What if we never went to Bekenstein, what if we were never criminals, what if we never fell in love? But despite all that, and the pain I feel that he's gone, I never regret a second of it." The room was quiet again as Tali took her words to heart. Eventually she stood up, brushing any dirt off her suit.

"Thank you Kasumi."

She left and the thief smiled.

_Love finds a way Tali._

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><p><em>So, there's Chapter 2. Not as fancy as the first one but I liked it. <em>

_Leave suggestions and constructive criticism as you like_

_Ciao_


	3. Tarnished

_Sorry that the previous chapter was so short._

_I know of Calinstel, saw their name mentioned a lot in other stories. Many of their ideas have shown up in other stories, such as the whole Bonding Process thing._

_I am going to try avoiding a copy/paste of that. I'll try to put my own version of it but if it still turns out like Calinstel's, well my bad. _

_Nothing against them, just trying to do it my own way y'know? _

_Alright, I've taken up enough of your time_

_Ciao_

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><p>The second biggest cue the crew got about Shepard and Tali's relationship was the day she learned about her trial. To those who found out, it came as such a shock that Tali could even be accused of treason, let alone actually do it. Garrus, Joker and Chakwas had known her from their first escapade and they each tried to console her about the matter in their own way. Kasumi tried cheering her up as well, but nothing was working. As for Shepard, well he had an <em>interesting<em> reaction if nothing else.

It was only an hour after she had just found out. Shepard had come back from a mission when, like always, Kelly informed him of any issues worth his attention. The second she got out that Tali was in trouble, he was already in the elevator and punching the command for deck four. His stride wasn't full of the usual commanding confidence that he inspired but something much more troubling. This time, she heard him coming and spun around to face him.

"Shepard, I'm glad you're here. I need your help." He nodded and stepped closer to her.

"What's wrong Tali? I heard you were in trouble." She sighs heavily and moves past him, pacing while she talks.

"You remember the Admiralty board? Well I just got a message from them and…and…" She cut herself off as tears spilled forth. She would have fallen to her knees had Shepard not been there to hold her close. She wrapped her arms around him and cried against him for she didn't know how long. She eventually got herself back under control, pulling back from Shepard with great reluctance.

"I'm sorry Shepard. I didn't mean for that to happen." He scoffed and she paused, thinking she had done something else wrong.

"Apologizing for crying Tali? You have feelings in case you forgot. You're not forbidden from expressing them." She shook her head, still feeling bad.

"It's not what you expect out there and-"

"Are we on a mission right now Tali?"

"Well…I suppose not but-"

"So why are you trying to be a soldier when you don't have to be right now? Just take a deep breath and tell me what's wrong. I can wait." She looked at him for a while, trying to see if he was mad or lying to her.

He either must not have been or he was very good at hiding such things.

"The board has accused me of treason Shepard."

The tension in the room suddenly got a hell of a lot thicker. So much so that anyone else in the vicinity bolted out. Shepard himself crossed his arms, his eyes shutting and his brows lowering. In what Tali couldn't tell at the time but now she recognized it for what it was.

Anger. Pure, unrestrained anger.

"That was a mistake on their part. A colossal one. No one who knows you would ever even think that you would betray your home."

_Well, at least Shepard believes in me._

"Thank you Shepard but that isn't enough. I have to go stand trial now at the flotilla and-"

"Give Joker the Fleet's current location Tali. We'll go there immediately." Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Shepard we have the mission to do! Even then they will wait a reasonable time and I can book passage on another ship!"

"Tough luck Miss vas Neema. I'm taking you there and pistol whipping the Admirals for this asinine action of theirs."

Say what you will about Shepard, when he wants to do something he is pretty damn determined to do it. She nodded, gave her thanks to Shepard, and headed up to the cockpit to inform Joker.

"EDI I'm fine. Vrolik's has just ruined my legs not the rest of me. You don't need to inform Chakwas every time I cringe." Evidently they were in the midst of another argument.

"I detected a number of stress fractures on your legs after you returned from your trip to the facilities. You have acquired some damage and it must be treated."

"It doesn't stop me from flying sooooo no. Now stop bothering me." He felt someone's presence behind him, turning in his chair and expecting to see the Commander.

"Tali! Hey how's my favorite Quarian?" He couldn't see behind the mask but somehow, he knew that Tali was upset. "Uh everything alright? You need me to get Shepard or something?" She shook her head and gave him the coordinates.

"It's where the fleet is. I need to go there." Joker input them into the navigation console and looked back at her.

"Can I ask why?"

"I…personal matters Joker. Please just leave it at that." The pilot managed to get up and put a comforting hand on Tali's shoulder.

"Whatever it is, I hope it's not something stupid like calling you a traitor or something." When Tali stiffened at this, he smacked his hand against his face. "Oh for the love of…your people are morons Tali." He moved back into his chair and prepped the ship for travel.

"Thank you Joker." She turned and headed back to the elevator, trying to keep it all together despite the impending trial.

A few relay jumps later, the Normandy successfully arrived at the Migrant Fleet's current location. Joker brought the ship in close and opened the comm channels while behind him, Shepard, Tali, Garrus and Kasumi geared up for whatever they had to.

"Tali, we've got a connection. How do we do this?" Joker's voice caught her attention and she moved up to him.

"This is Tali'Zorah vas Neema nar Rayya requesting permission to dock with the Rayya." The others were dead silent while Tali got them in.

"Our system has your ship flagged as Cerberus. Verify." The cold tone of the operator replied, the hatred of Cerberus dripping from his words.

"After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began." There was a brief pause on the other end.

"Accepted. Welcome home Tali'Zorah."

"Thank you. We'd like a security and quarantine team to meet us. Our ship is not clean."

"Acknowledged. Please proceed to docking cradle 17." The connection cut out there and Tali turned to face the ground team.

"They'll just clean the airlock really and then we can get this nightmare over with." Each nodded and they stood at the airlock door, waiting for the team to be done.

Garrus had been briefed on why they were here and Kasumi had overheard, insisting to come along. Shepard figured it couldn't hurt to have more friends at her side in this nightmare. They all knew Tali would never betray the fleet and each were prepared to knock some sense into whomever they had to to get the point across.

The doors opened with their usual mechanical chime and they entered onto the Rayya together. As requested, a team of Quarian security officers were there. Each wore a bronze coloured suit with blue accents. They stood to the side in casual positions, snapping to attention when they saw their captain approach. Tali recognized him instantly.

"Captain Kar'Danna. If you're here this must be important." The man nodded, looking at her.

"It unfortunately is Tali'Zorah." He paused to look at Shepard. "You must be Captain Shepard. Your presence here is greatly appreciated."

"Happy to oblige but unless I got posthumously promoted I'm still a Commander. Actually I'm not even part of the Alliance anymore so that's a whole other can of worms right there."

"I don't understand what worms in cans have to do with rank but as Commander of the vessel she serves on, you are recognized by Quarian law as a Captain."

"Wow. Just had to come to the Flotilla to get a promotion. I like your people already Tali. Wonder what they'll do for an encore." Despite herself, Tali laughed at his words. It was a welcome distraction at any rate.

"Are all human Captains like this or is it just you Captain Shepard?"

"Just me. I'm a regular freak of nature. But we should be getting back to why exactly we are here. No offense."

"None taken. Tali'Zorah," he looked back at her, "has been accused of bringing active Geth onto the fleet." Tali's eyes widened in outrage and she stepped forward.

"That's insane! I never sent active Geth! Only parts and pieces! Everything was checked over to the smallest detail for even the slightest chance of reactivation." Kar'Danna nodded, raising his hands in a gesture of harmlessness.

"I believe you Tali'Zorah but evidently there must have been something there that points to you. I find it preposterous but that is how it is." She calmed down at that, stepping back to Shepard's side.

"Well, at least one of my own people believe I'm innocent."

The Captain moved his gaze over the ground team, hands now clasped behind his back.

"Technically I am under orders to confine Tali'Zorah to this ship until the trial is over. I apologize but again, I am under orders." She nodded in understanding. "The trial requires I be impartial but I am here if you need me Tali'Zorah."

"Thank you Captain but we should get this underway." Kar'Danna agreed and stepped aside to let her pass.

"I wish you luck Tali."

"Let's hope I don't need it."

The group made their way through the Rayya, each having their own worries on mind. They saw the Rayya's presumably makeshift courtroom ahead, two Quarians talking in front of the doorway there. As they approached, one of the Quarians walked off while the other turned to face them.

"Tali'Zorah vas…Normandy. I am glad you came by so quickly. The other Admirals are not known for their patience." This Quarian's voice was aged but full of sadness. Tali however seemed not to have noticed as she moved forward and hugged the other Quarian, the embrace not being returned.

"Auntie Raan!" Tali pulled back and faced Shepard. "Shepard vas Normandy, this is Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay. She is a friend of my father's and of mine…wait. Raan, you called me 'vas Normandy.'" The Admiral nodded slowly.

"I'm afraid I did Tali. The Admiralty board moved to have you tried under that name given your departure from the Neema." At this Tali's mood only worsened.

"Sorry to intrude but does her association with my ship make things worse? If it helps I'll change the name. Joker will be pissed but hey." And yet that got a soft laugh out of the group.

"That would mean he lost the Normandy twice. Does this mean we should blow up the name or just re-paint it? I'm liking the first option myself." Garrus' flanged voice entered the discussion, earning another laugh.

"Hmm tough call. Tali, is there a Quarian word for, 'ship that kicks more ass than any other?'"

"If there isn't, I will make it up."

"Works for me." This whole display struck Raan as rather odd but it must have been a human culture thing. Then again, with the way Tali spoke about Shepard it may have just been singular to him. "Anyway Admiral Raan, are you one of the judges in this as well?" Raan shook her head.

"I'm afraid not. This time I serve as a mediator and regulations enforcer. My history with Tali forced me to recuse myself."

"I imagine Father had to do that as well."

"You'll see inside Tali."

"I guess we should get started then Admiral. Does Tali have a defense councilor? We're a bit hard pressed for those on the Normandy."

"Indeed she does, Captain Shepard. By terms of Quarian law, she is a part of your crew now. In our legal matters, the accused is always represented by his or her ship's Captain." Tali looked over at Shepard, hesitation in her eyes.

"So…you would be my defense councilor actually Shepard." He chuckled, grinning at her.

"This is a terrible idea Tali. My experience with politicians usually involves shooting them until I win. Don't think that will fly this time." The group shared another laugh, even Raan joined in this time.

"Come on Commander, use that Shepard charm on them like you did in our last adventure."

"I have charm? How come no one told me?"

"To be fair it's mostly by proxy of me being there. The people love the handsome, charming Turian and they must have assumed that you have the same charm I do."

"Garrus you have all the charming power of a pile of dead pyjaks."

"Then what does that say for Wrex? He's spending all his time around them these days."

"Yeah but Wrex makes it look good. Probably cause he eats them rather lets them pile up." Tali just smiled, happy to lose herself in this little moment of peace amongst their otherwise hectic lives.

"But anyway, we should get this going." Shepard's voice brought her back to reality as it so often did and when he turned to face her, she felt the light blush on her cheeks. "I'll do everything in my power to help you Tali. I won't give up no matter what it takes." Garrus and Kasumi voiced their agreement as well.

"It is good that she has such a committed Captain then. Now come, I promised I would not delay you."

The group moved into the Rayya's courtroom, Garrus and Kasumi hanging back at the edge while Shepard and Tali moved to the podium. Raan stood at the top level with three other Quarians below her.

"This Conclave is brought to order…"

* * *

><p><em>Longer this time. Do I need to put in the opening bits of the trial? If that is suggested enough I'll edit this chapter with the trial bit added on.<em>

_Sorry for the copy paste of some of the in-game dialogue._

_Hope you enjoyed the chapter._

_Ciao or Keelah se'lai. Whatever works._


	4. Anger and Agony

_Decided to skip the trial bit. Not enough yay or nay on it._

_So I'm at a slight loss here. There was this nice video that showed a significant majority of the Tali romance in the series. The account has been terminated rather recently for unspecified reasons and I'm now at a loss for video research material basically._

_I know there are others, I just liked that one._

_So, this should be a long one. _

_Ciao_

* * *

><p>The shuttle docked onto the Alarei with a subtle thump, the group inside bringing themselves into their combat mode. Kasumi had been extensively briefed on any weaknesses the Geth would have so to have a better chance against them. They each readied their weapons and with a deep breath by Tali, opened the shuttle door.<p>

Seeing a Geth standing right there, gun raised, was not the best start to have. At least Tali's hatred of their race got them out of the problem quickly through the usual method of shotgun diplomacy.

The group carefully moved through the hallways of the ship. Stealth may have been redundant against perfect hunters and stalkers like the Geth, which is why they weren't sticking to the shadows. If they knew how to make more of themselves from whatever parts they could find, it stands to reason they would know how to make traps out of who knows what.

As that was the third mine they had noticed already, their precautions had been taken wisely.

Evidently, the Geth must have gotten impatient as the next room they made their way into, some kind of crew quarters by the looks of it, had Geth swarming into the room instantly. Each person took cover, peeking out to fire off Overloads and the occasional blind fire.

Shepard gritted his teeth as he caught some Geth advancing on them, the ones not were giving suppressing fire of course. Uttering a profanity, he looked over his cover to fire a blast from the Arc Projector, taking some joy in seeing the six Geth it chained to shut down quickly. He sent his drone out to hit the Geth at the back, hoping it would distract them long enough for Garrus to snipe them.

Evidently he needed to have more faith in his best friend as the vigilante quickly shot them down, calling out his signature taunt in the process.

Without their support, the advancing Geth moved back into cover, the odds now against them. Four Overloads and a few dozen rounds later and the room was cleared of them. Tali worked on hacking the door open while the others checked the Geth for any spare thermal clips.

"So is every fight with the Geth like this or is it just cause this is my first day?" Kasumi's voice broke the silence and Garrus stood up from kneeling over a Geth to address her.

"No it's usually in a more open space. Unless you count those tunnels in the Skyway back on Feros."

"And what do you do when it's so close like this?"

"You improvise or you let Shepard handle it and then take all the credit when he's not looking."

"I knew there was a reason the Council wouldn't believe me! It was all cause of you Garrus you credit stealing fiend!"

"Turian charm Shepard. Try it sometime."

"Turian? Maybe. Your brand of charm? I'd have better luck showing up for any kind of meeting covered in blood and full of bullets at that rate."

"Well that certainly wouldn't get a date with anyone anytime soon." Tali ever so subtly stiffened at this, possessive instincts kicking in at Garrus' words. It was a gesture not missed by Kasumi however who thought a small push was necessary.

"Well let's find out. If Shepard showed up for a date covered in blood and full of bullets, would you turn him away Tali?" Tali instantly felt her face turn red and only getting redder as three sets of eyes looked over at her. Her silence however, drew Shepard's concern rather than his curiosity. He made his way over to her and put a gentle hand on her back.

"You okay Tali?" The door opening brought everyone's mind back to the mission. She mentally shook away her embarrassment and moved into the open passageway, the others following her with Shepard moving to her side.

"I'm fine Shepard. Let's just focus on the task at hand. He nodded, returning his focus to the mission. There would always be time to ensure she was alright later. As they entered the kitchen area, that became less apparent. They quickly moved back into cover as Geth entered through the two doors at the other side of the room.

Shepard and Tali focused on the left one, slinging out Overloads and Phalanx pistol rounds at the incoming synthetics while Kasumi stunned the Geth on the right and Garrus dropped them dead while they were out of it. A sound strategy that paid off quickly as the Geth stopped coming into the kitchen area. The process repeated itself as in the crew quarters, with Garrus and Kasumi looking for clips. This time, Shepard went up to Tali and tried again.

"Tali, remember what I said. You're allowed to have feelings and you're certainly allowed to express them to your friends and loved ones." Well, her feelings for her loved one was not something she wanted to distract her now.

"I'm scared Shepard." He pulled her into a gentle hug and she quickly returned it, craving the close contact right now. The gentle rubbing of her back calmed her immeasurably and she felt her entire body relax. A soft chuckle from Shepard brought her eyes to his.

"Guess I'll have to do that more often now that I know what it does to you. Maybe it'll stop you from spending all your time working on the drive core instead of sleeping." She laughed, happy to let go for a moment like always.

"Mmm work or get a back massage from the great Commander Shepard. Decisions decisions decisions."

"I see you're picking up human phrases pretty well."

"Only so I can be sure you're not insulting me."

"Insult you? The great Quarian Badass? I value my hide thank you very much." She smiled and pulled back from him.

"Thank you Shepard. I needed that." As fate would of course cruelly have it, she would need it again. Sadly, for worse reasons than being afraid.

She got the door open, they moved into the next section where of course there was more Geth waiting. This time Tali won out with the kill record, a fact she happily rubbed in Garrus' face much to Shepard and Kasumi's amusement. So it was quite the tonal shift when upon entering the hallway leading to the main research center, her shotgun clattered to the ground with a resounding thud.

"No…Father…" She fell to her knees, her fingers flying over her omni-tool as she desperately tried to find if this body was in fact her Father. It was a heart-wrenching scene and it was not a possibility any of the ground team wanted to face.

Garrus moved back into the room, trying to collect himself and not cry over it all. Kasumi was having a harder time than he was as she tried to look anywhere that wasn't where Tali was. Shepard couldn't blame them really, they had to deal with loss as well but they still hadn't gotten completely over it.

They hadn't had years to handle it like he had with Mindoir.

So it was familiar steps, to him at least, that he moved to Tali and pulled her into another hug as the reality crashed down on her. She clung to him for dear life and he simply closed his eyes and let her, the outside world nonexistent to him right now. Her arms wrapped around him tightly as she sobbed into his shoulder, another part of her life dead before her. Unlike Shepard, Rael wasn't coming back and it only made her cry harder.

The whole scene would have tugged on anyone's heartstrings. Children are expected to outlive their parents by nature's design.

But not like this.

Tali cried for some time and never once did Shepard's arms leave her. He never flinched from her tight hold, never fidgeted about from an uncomfortable position, never did anything that would have hurt her any worse than she already was. She'd have thanked him for it under normal circumstances.

"I…I'm better now Shepard…thank you…"

"Bullshit. I won't force you to stay here and cry every tear you have but you are not okay Tali. There is never any way to be okay from this." He pulled back enough to look right into her eyes. "I'll accept that you're okay enough to finish this mission but when we're done with this nightmare, we are talking about this until you are truly better."

"Shepard that's-"

"I had no one after Mindoir Tali. I will not let you go through this kind of loss on your own. Besides, Captain's orders." He grinned and could tell she smiled back at him.

"Thank you…John." He chuckled and let go of her.

"Well there goes my badass image. No one's going to worship a guy named John." She laughed and stood up, him with her.

_Ancestors it feels good to laugh again._

She scanned through Rael's omni-tool, finding two files there marked for her. One was marked as PRIORITY and the other as 'For Tali.' She played the first one and downloaded the second one to her own omni-tool for later.

"Tali, if you are listening to this then I am dead. Unfortunately, the Geth must be stopped before they have a chance to expand further in the fleet. There is a Geth hub on the main bridge that coordinates all their functions. Destroy it, and the fleet is saved. There will be data on the console in the room as well. It is instrumental in our fight to take back the homeworld. Make sure Han and Xen see the data. Our victory is assured then." The recording cut out as the sounds of plasma fire could be heard in the background. Tali simply shook her head in disbelief at the whole situation.

"All that effort Father, all that time spent working instead of living, and this is how you have it end? Just pass the data on, let another Quarian become you…" She sighed heavily, grabbed her gun and moved on. Shepard, Garrus and Tali quickly followed after exchanging worried expressions.

The grand finale was quick and painless. The Geth units were killed, the hub destroyed, and the console accessed. The truth was laid bare for them to see, to observe as Rael knowingly brought the Geth online. To watch as those Geth slaughtered the Quarians on board without mercy. Tali shut the recordings off abruptly and simply stared at the keyboard. She cut them off before any of them could speak up.

"We can't use this." As expected, the chorus of "What?!" echoed through the room.

"Tali if we don't use this you're looking at exile!" She snapped to her left to glare at Shepard.

"If we do then my Father is the worst war criminal in my people's history! I might as well exile myself after that! And don't you dare say that he doesn't need me defending him simply because he's dead!"

"Tali…"

"I may lose the fleet but at least I won't be linked to such atrocities! I won't let my people destroy everything my father worked for!" A silence hung in the room as Tali continued glaring at Shepard, silently begging him not to use the data.

"Alright Tali, we'll do it your way. But for now, we need to get back to the Rayya before they declare us dead. I doubt they have their own Bailey here so we'd have a lot of paperwork to wade through to prove we're alive again." He put a deletion order on the data and they moved back to the shuttle.

They had to rush back to the courtroom as they could hear the Admiralty already making their final decision. Garrus and Kasumi hung at the back again as Shepard and Tali stood in front of the Admirals. There was some opening banter before the moment of truth came.

"Did you find any data that would prove Tali's innocence onboard the Alarei?" Shepard paused, his head lowered slightly as he went over his plan one last time.

"You say that as I truly need some to dissuade you all."

"This is a legal proceeding Commander, not some opportunity for you to be snide."

"Really? A legal proceeding? Cause frankly, all I see is pure bullshit. It's funny how even in different species, politicians always use other reasons to disguise their true motives. Scum-sucking leaches the whole lot of you."

"You do your case no good by insulting us!"

"I do my case plenty! You lot are using this trial only to fight against the Geth! You don't give a damn about Tali!"

"This trial has nothing to do with the Geth!"

"You want to make peace with them Koris! Gerrel wants to go to war! Xen wants to enslave them all! You're just using Tali as a cover-up for the whole thing! Tali saved the Citadel! She helped me stop Saren and the Geth! She has more knowledge about the Geth than any other Quarian! She showed the entire galaxy the value of the Quarian people! And all you can think of doing is exiling her on a chance?! In a reasonable society, you don't punish innocent people for the crimes of another! So this is either a reasonable society or a fucking madhouse! Which is it then?!" His words had shocked everyone there into silence as he simply glared at the Admirals in waiting for their answer.

The vote was quick and it was unanimous. He had saved her again.

"Captain Shepard, please take these gifts as a token for representing one of our people." He snorted, narrowing his eyes into a harder glare.

"I didn't represent on your people. I represented one of **mine**."

_If only John…if only…_

* * *

><p><em>So, how did I do?<em>

_Hah, I said it would be longer. Yeah by like a hundred or so words. Ah well. I tried._

_Ciao_


	5. About Bloody TIme

_Reviews have told me I do the chemistry bits well. Lucky me. _

_Have I built it up enough? Personally I think I have. So here's the release._

_Ciao_

* * *

><p>Tali was giddy.<p>

A week ago following her trial, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was quite the opposite emotion from what she should be feeling. So it was with some surprise that Shepard noted that she was bouncing on her toes as she so often did. This was not unusual in and of itself but again, he had expected her to still be rather upset.

"Everything alright Tali?" She turned around to face him, her smile positively beaming behind her mask.

"Alright? Everything is just fantastic right now Shepard." His eyebrow raised quizzically and he leaned against the console she was working at.

"Care to illuminate me?" She nodded, fiddling with her omni-tool to make a recording play. Rael's voice was what played.

"Tali, my daughter, my precious pride and joy. All things I should have said to you when I could. Instead I became so wrapped up in work I didn't see you grow up and live as you should have. If you never forgive me then I'll understand Tali. It's what I deserve." There was a pause as Rael took a deep breath.

"But I won't let this go unsaid anymore. I love you Tali. Too little too late I'd imagine but, the last chance is here. You have always made me proud with everything you do. When you brought home that Geth data I wanted to shout out what an amazing job you had done. Instead, I just kept quiet and focused on being a damn Admiral." Tali continued smiling and Shepard was growing one as well.

"What's the human term…oh yes. Being an Admiral sucks Tali. Find a better line of work if you're going to work for the Fleet after all. But whatever you choose in your life Tali, choose it with yourself in mind. The Quarians don't live your life for you. I love you my daughter and you've always made me proud. Goodbye Tali." The recording stopped and Tali shut off her tool, sighing happily.

"Well, can you give a good father award posthumously?" She laughed, it was hard and it felt good.

"Sometimes I really hated my Father. Him and his damned work. Now he does this and I just want to punch him for being so stupid." Shepard chuckled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"We can still go back to the Alarei if you want." She giggled and gave him a playful shove.

"Hell no. I'm done with the fleet for some time anyway. Maybe when this mission is over I'll go back but for now, they can bite me."

"You are getting better and better at human phrases Tali."

"I still don't get why you would say 'bite me' but I like it nonetheless." She sneezed suddenly, this absolutely adorable sound.

"First off, that was cute. Second, are you sick?" She blushed at the first comment.

"It was not. And it's no big deal. I took some fire back on the Alarei and I'm running a small fever."

"Fevers don't usually cause people to sneeze."

"…My nose itched. Don't you laugh!" He had only gotten a small chuckle before he clasped his hand over his mouth playfully. She smiled and gave him another shove. "Bosh'tet."

"Only for you." Another blush. "But do you need medical aid?"

"Really it's not a big deal. If a stray bit of bacteria could have killed us we'd have all died out by now. It's more along the lines of an allergic reaction than anything else whenever we do get exposed." Thinking about it, it did make sense to Shepard and he nodded along as she spoke.

"Okay but you're one of the most safe people I know. How did you get sick or was it just bad luck?" She shook her head, bringing up a holographic image of her suit.

"That fire I mentioned? Well I had to open my suit to clean the wound it left. The shot hit my section seal and thus it didn't clamp down when I opened my suit. Ergo, I got sick." She let out a frustrated sigh and shook her head. "It was a stupid move to be honest. You always check the seals before you open your suit and I just forgot this time. At least this fever will be a reminder."

"Huh. Your suit is basically like a ship in that aspect. Though if anyone tried to fly you they'd get a horrible case of shotgun poisoning." She giggled again and leaned against her console with him.

"So true. Its worked wonders for batting off suitors in the past." He grinned and she suddenly wished she hadn't said that.

"Oh ho, what's this? The great Tali'Zorah had people going for her affections?" She groaned and put a hand on his face, pushing him back.

"Keelah don't say that. It's not like some barbaric nonsense that you humans go through."

"How is-nevermind. How do Quarians court each other then?"

_Keelah, what a corner you've backed yourself into Tali_

"Well we don't really have the time for that kind of process."

"Theeeeen how do you do it?"

"Suited life has made these things difficult Shepard. We are in these damned things even among close family. The most intimate thing we can do with another Quarian is link our suit environments."

"That's a new one. How does it work?"

"Mostly it's a lot of tubes and cables that connect our suits to each other. We get a taste of each other's environments, get sick, and then adapt. It's our most important gesture of trust."

"I can see why. You're putting your life in their hands." She nodded and looked up at the ceiling where she was sure another hidden camera was.

"I haven't trusted anyone for that. Except for…well, I haven't trusted any Quarians to that extent yet." He moved closer to her suddenly.

"Forgive me for playing the presumptuous card here but I trust you too Tali. I can't say you'd like my environment but you're welcome to it." He grinned but his words made her flush crimson.

"I figured but…well the act is more than a sign of trust. It also means that the Quarians are ready to be…intimate together." She fumbled her words further, unaware of the suddenly very happy Shepard next to her.

"Tali, are you suggesting something?" She looked at him now.

"What could I possibly be suggesting John? You save me from a dangerous situation, bring me on board your ship, let me save the galaxy along with you, and now you're letting me do it all over again. You've gone out of your way from day one to make me feel comfortable in whatever situation you brought me into." Feeling bold, she wrapped her arms around his neck suddenly.

"How could I not be interested in you John?"

_Okay Kasumi, I've laid my feelings bare for him to see. Please don't freak out John…_

His arms wrapped around her waist and he held her close, as close as he had when he had saved her back on Haestrom. He wasn't saying anything but his embrace was calming her immensely. She gladly lost herself in the moment, uncaring for anything else right now.

She caught the pleased sound he made this time and she found herself unconsciously returning it one of her own.

"John?"

"Mmm…Tali, you have a way with words you know that." She smiled and gave him a fond squeeze. "I feel the same way about you as if that wasn't obvious enough." He chuckled and she felt his body rumble against hers with the actions.

"How come you never said anything?" He scoffed, keeping her tight against him. Not that she was complaining of course.

"Remember when you first came back on the Normandy? I said, 'I don't want to be me.' Pretty accurate really. I have some serious trouble expressing my feelings Tali."

"You're always making jokes and being happy though."

"To be honest, every day I check myself for a heartbeat. What I was before I died, I'm not him anymore." She held him tighter at the mention of his death. It always burned her and evidently, it did to him as well.

"John…"

"Sorry for being slow and scared about my feelings Tali. Forgive me or do I need to be subjected to your wrath?" She smiled and reluctantly pulled away.

"I think I'll let you off the hook this time. There better not be a next time though Commander." He smirked and let her go, giving her a salute.

"Ma'am yes ma'am." She laughed and punched him this time, laughing harder and the ensuing wince he gave.

She looked back now at that fond memory as she worked on the drive core statistics, humming a gentle tune as she went. A pair of familiar arms wrapped around her waist and she smiled wide.

"How did it go with Thane's son?" He rested his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes in contentment.

"Great. Kolyat is safe, Thane is happy, everybody is just fine." She leaned into his embrace.

"Okay, how did it actually go?"

"You're horrible."

"I have a shotgun Commander."

"Fiiiine!" He smirked and kissed her neck, eliciting a soft purr in reply. "Kolyat is working off his attempted murder charge with Bailey. Thane is going to keep up regular contact with him and is allowed to come visit him."

"Good. So we'll be visiting the Citadel a little more often?"

"Thane promised not to abuse the privilege buuuuut yeah we totally will. It'll give me a good chance to take you out on a date anyway."

"Oh great. You're making me partake in your barbaric customs."

"Speaking of, here's another one." He hefted her over his shoulder suddenly, grinning at the surprised yelp she made.

"Shepard! Put me down!"

"No."

"I'll sick Chatika on you!"

"She'll shock you as well."

"I'll seriously hack your implants!"

"How will I tell you you're beautiful then?"

"That's…don't distract me!"

"Make me."

* * *

><p><em>Short again. My bad. Ran out of material.<em>

_Next up, you can pick. Overlord or Shadow Broker DLC?_

_Ciao_


	6. Man's Reach Exceeding His Grasp

_Overlord it is_

_Phil, who said I wouldn't be showing a promised date? _

_Ciao_

* * *

><p>"Get ready. I wouldn't be surprised if this button summoned a Reaper." Shepard dryly spoke as he put his hand on the deactivation switch. The lights began to flicker and Tali and Garrus kept their guns at the ready.<p>

"What's the human phrase Shepard? Don't jinx yourself?" Shepard looked at his Turian comrade.

"It is. But seriously, after what else we've done today I wouldn't be-" He cut himself with a scream of pain as the rogue AI hacked into him, taking control of his synthetics. Tali and Garrus could only watch in horror as their Commander was attacked. Shepard pulled his hand free, looking into the digital world in a daze. He didn't hear his beloved's cries of his name as he stumbled out of the room, the door sealing shut behind him. Tali tried in vain to catch him, quickly moving on to hacking the door open while Garrus assisted.

"You damned AI! Let go of him!" Her fingers flew across the interfaces as she worked harder than she had ever done so before.

"Damn Cerberus! Ignore the risks my ass!" Garrus was putting what he knew to good use and little by little, they were getting the door closer to being opened. "I'm really wishing we had Kasumi with us right about now!"

"You and me both! I also wish that THIS DAMNED THING HADN'T TAKEN MY BOYFRIEND!" Her frustration took a new turn as she started blasting the door with her shotgun. Garrus emulating her with his assault rifle as they blasted bits of the door off little by little. They paused to reload and Garrus took this chance to address what he had just heard.

"Boyfriend Tali?" With a huff, she nodded.

"There goes the secret part of it." He chuckled and re-sighted his rifle.

"I'll tease you for it later but for now, good for you two." His mandibles spread in a Turian smile as they resumed working on the door.

Shepard on the other hand was not having a very good day. He had been told digital drugs were supposed to amazing and this is not at all what he was expecting.

Oh no wait that's what he would be thinking if he weren't freaking the hell out.

He made his way through this digital reality, baring witness to recordings of Gavin and David as the whole project first began. Communicating with the Geth through simple mathematics? One super calculator later and this whole problem could be solved peacefully.

He finally came to the source of the problem, if he could still be called that. There he saw David, brutally tortured just for potential progress.

"Commander wait!" He turned to see Gavin rushing in. "Don't do anything rash!"

"Rash? Like forcing your own brother into your sick goals?"

"We wanted to stop the Geth!"

"There are always better options!"

"It's not like I planned this! David spoke with the Geth on pure accident. I never intended for this to happen."

"Intention isn't an excuse here."

"I had no choice! The Illusive Man doesn't broker failure! You know this as well as I do!"

"Yet you still did it anyway! Look at him! He'll never be the same!"

"The damage may not be permanent. Some semblance of David may yet remain."

"Cerberus will never leave him alone. He'll be a lab rat for the rest of his life."

"But a well cared for lab rat. At least he'd be alive." Growling, Shepard gestured to David.

"Does he look like he's alive? Does he look like he'll ever be okay again?" Gavin paused and looked at his brother for the first time since this nightmare began.

"Square root of 906.01 equals…"

"30.1" The reality sunk in for Gavin and he looked back at Shepard. "What I've done to David is unethical. If he dies, it's unforgiveable. Let me take care of him. Please."

"Bullshit. I leave him with you and he'll be a puppet here forever. I'm taking him away."

"No! He's too valuable!" Gavin pulled out a pistol and tried to shot Shepard, the shots being easily dodged. Shepard returned the attack with a sharp punch across Gavin's face.

"You even think of coming after him and I will kill you. And seeing as how I killed Sovereign, you will be nothing by comparison." Gavin looked back at David, shaking his head at the sight.

"Where will you take him?"

"None of your damned business. You're lucky I think it's better that you live with your crimes than die for them. Now get out of here." The sound of two more guns being un-holstered drew their attention to Tali and Garrus standing in the doorway.

"Shepard, we killed Saleon for far worse. Is this really the path you want to take?"

"There are worse things than death Garrus." He looked back at Gavin. "Scram. Now." And he did, leaving the way he came. Tali and Garrus moved up to Shepard and saw the lengths people would go to for progress.

"Keelah…this is too much."

"Would your people ever have done something like this if it meant stopping the Geth Tali?"

"Xen maybe. But it would never have been approved, let alone allowed to work in secret. Your race is truly frightening Shepard." He nodded, looking at gun and then back at David.

"Tortured by his crimes…I'd still prefer he was dead but I like it Shepard." Shepard let out a humorless chuckle.

"There are many ways to kill a man Garrus. Flesh that burns, bones that break. But to break a man's spirit, is to truly destroy him."

"That's…rather harsh Shepard."

"It should be. The God of War said it."

The trip from there was spent getting David out of that device safely, treating him for injuries, and getting him to Grissom Academy. That had been hours ago and Shepard hadn't moved from his cabin in that time. Tali was getting increasingly worried and decided to go check.

When she stepped into his cabin, she found the lights dimmed low.

"John?"

"On the couch Tali." She moved over to him and sat next to him.

"Are you alright?"

He shook his head, staring at his hand.

"I got hacked today Tali. And by a poor kid who was a lab rat for a monster. I'm not sure which is worse really."

"What happened to you and David is not your fault."

"I felt like a marionette Tali. I could see, but it wasn't through my own eyes. If a human hybrid AI could do this to me, what's to stop the Geth or the Reapers or anyone with enough skill to tear into me and use me for whatever they needed." Silence descended upon them as Tali fought for an answer. Eventually, she got one.

She started by moving into his lap and making him look her in the eyes.

"Tali?"

"No one is going to hack you Shepard. That's my job." He smiled and she returned it. "You're mine John'Shepard." He wrapped his arms around her happily.

"I'm all yours Tali'Zorah."

* * *

><p><em>Can I just say that Simon Templeman is a great voice actor? But he's always playing the bad guy. <em>

_Kain, Logain, Gavin Archer, Han'Gerrel, the list goes on. _

_The day he plays a good guy is likely only because everyone else is doing worse things by comparison. Like Kratos against the Gods of Olympus._

_Oh right story bit._

_So how did I do? It was a little hard to write some bits for Tali and Garrus while trapped in the room as there's a lot of unanswered factors._

_We don't know how skilled the AI is in prevent hacking attempts. In the last few seconds of that cutscene, there were five haptic interfaces on the door. Blowing apart the door seemed like something David couldn't really stop._

_The quote from Ares is a line he said back in the first God of War game. I really liked it. _

_Sorry it was a short one again. There's not really much material to have in about five or so minutes._

_Ciao_


	7. Idyll Moments

_Rogen suggested I format this as Overlord, Citadel Date, Shadow Broker. Sounds about right. _

_Phil, I was just being playful. It can be hard to put emotion into these words._

_So, date night eh? Can't guarantee it'll be something grand but I'll do my best._

_Suggestions for Shadow Broker DLC? Maybe tones of jealousy/possessiveness over Liara being along for the ride? A little overdone but always fun to see._

_I wish these dividing lines showed up in the finished product._

_Ciao_

* * *

><p>The doors to Life Support slid open with their usual mechanical hiss, Thane always taking note of this in preparation for another chat with one of the crew.<p>

Seeing Shepard round the corner of his table though made him smile.

"Do you need something Shepard?" The Commander stood in front of the window in the room, looking through it but not truly. He was silent and Thane let him take his time.

"I'll be blunt Thane. How did you court Irikah?" Well that he wasn't expecting to hear.

"Not conventionally I assure you." Shepard's shoulders moved with laughter.

"Yes I imagine having her in your scope sights would not be a good conversation starter." Thane chuckled as well.

"Why do you ask Shepard?"

"Call it curiosity."

"I would call it preparedness Commander."

"Dare I ask why?" Thane was quiet was he slipped into a memory.

"Soft giggles echo around the drive core, steady gazes pierce through a purple mask, a three fingered hand lingers before parting from its chosen mate." Shepard looked over at him now.

"You see and hear much evidently."

"I am an assassin Shepard. My eyes and ears must always be open and aware. Personally, it is good to see two people so happy together."

"Well then mister assassin, are we discreet about it at all?" Thane laughed, a wide smile on his face.

"Not in the least. Tali's exuberance is even more infectious now than usual. It is a clear giveaway." Shepard grinned and looked back through the window.

"Happy to oblige then." Thane stood up and looked out the window with him, now seeing Tali working at the console below.

"You still seem troubled."

"Lots of things to fret over. Still got those Reapers to stop and whatnot. Little things."

"Your tone feels hollow Shepard. What is actually bothering you right now?"

"If you're that good, then you probably know what it is already." At this, Thane paused. Both men looked at the Quarian down below in silence for a while.

"No matter how it ended and how poorly I handled it, I never regretted a second with Irikah. Never regret the time you spend with those you love Shepard. It will bring you unequaled happiness as long as you hold it dear." Shepard chuckled, looking at Thane with a grin.

"This mean I bring you some serious joy or are you just humoring me?" The Drell laughed and moved back to his seat.

"I do appreciate these chats we have Shepard. It is nice to have a friend again." He smiled at Shepard, folding his hands in front of him like always. "I would suggest entertainment over a dinner given her immune system."

Nodding, Shepard said his thanks and left the Life Support only to be quickly yanked into Kasumi's room and pushed onto her couch.

"Kasumi, this is rather forward don't you think?" The thief had her usual mischievous smirk on as she sat next to him.

"Dream on Shep. I know you've already got your eyes on someone else." Shepard smirked back at her.

"Curses! My secret's out!" She laughed softly and whapped him on the head.

"You really make her happy Shepard. She loves you." He nodded, his expression turning to his "Tali-Business" face as Kasumi would affectionately dub it in due time.

"I love her too. I really do." She smiled, remembering the same words Keiji said to her many times. "Hah, it's frightening sometimes. Then I just hold her close and there's no fear."

"Congrats Shep, you're in love."

"Good. I'd hate to think there was something wrong with me. Other than being crazy, reckless, dangerous, suicidal-"

"Guess Tali must be attracted to danger." Shepard barked out a laugh and grinned at the hooded woman.

"Does it get any more dangerous than loving a zombie full of metal who killed a god?"

"If it does, I'll let her know so she can dump your decaying ass." They shared a good laugh at this, chatting a while longer before Shepard got up to go.

"Not to diminish this wonderful chat we've had Kasumi but why did you call me in here?" She smiled and handed him a datapad.

"A list of great date locations. Take your pick loverboy." He chuckled and took it.

"Much obliged. Please don't try and steal from these places in case she likes them."

"What about what you think of them?"

"As long as Tali's there, nothing else matters." The Commander left Kasumi's room, heading back up to his cabin to look over the locations Kasumi had given him. He had an hour to do this before the doors to his cabin opened and surprisingly, in stepped his favorite Quarian.

"Tali? Something wrong?" She shook her head, sitting down next to him and resting her head on his shoulder.

"If you can believe it, I've got no work to do and I felt like spending time with you." He smiled, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her close.

"Now that sounds like a plan Miss vas Normandy." He moved them into a better position, him stretching his legs out on the couch while she was rested against him, her head on his chest. She purred all the while, holding his hands in hers happily.

"Mmm is this a human thing John or are am I just special?" He smiled and kissed the top of her helmet.

"You are indeed special but this what we humans call cuddling. We do it with those we love very much." She purred deeply at that word as she always did.

"I'd do the same for you but you are too heavy John." He laughed and held her closer.

"You are getting better at this every day huh?"

"I had a good teacher." Her eyes caught the datapad suddenly and she picked it up. "Did I interrupt you in the middle of work?" He chuckled and pressed another kiss to her helmet.

"Nope. Locations on the Citadel where I could take you for a date actually." Excited, she began looking through the list herself. "You can thank Kasumi for it."

"If we have a good time, I will. Otherwise I'm going to confiscate her cloak." He grinned and looked through the list with her. They eventually found a theater that was friendly to all races and booked tickets, putting the datapad aside and resuming their cuddle. Shepard dimmed the lights through his omni-tool, closing his eyes alongside Tali for a well-deserved break.

The sounds of the Normandy being held in place by the magnetic clamps woke them both. Shepard rubbed his eyes open while Tali stretched awake, unintentionally giving her boyfriend quite the show. Which he rather enjoyed naturally when he wrapped his arms around her again. She giggled softly and craned her head back to look up at him.

"John, we are here for our date remember?" He grinned and tightened his grip.

"Can't. Need to grope you first." She laughed and began playfully pushing him away.

"Ack! Somebody save me from this fiend!" He smirked and kept her close, pleased when she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Sorry Tali. Couldn't help it."

"At least it means I'm attractive to you."

"You ever doubted that?"

"This suit hides much John. You don't even-ack! Watch your hands!"

"I'm making a point."

"What point could that be?" He smiled softly and kissed her vocalizer.

"That you're always beautiful, no matter what." She blushed madly, wrapping her arms around him again in a tight embrace.

"Bosh'tet."

"Your bosh'tet Tali." She smiled and snuggled down into his chest. Their date wasn't for hours yet anyway. They could wait rather happily in each other's arms. They talked, they laughed, they played and pretty much acted like kids in love always do. Eventually they broke apart, Shepard changing into something that wasn't a Cerberus uniform or armor. He linked arms with his girlfriend as they left the now empty Normandy for their date.

They took a skycab to the theater they had picked, getting their tickets to, what else, the new Blasto film. Of course it was cheesy and overacted but hey, it was a good date in the end. They had a great time, happily holding hands on the way back to the Normandy.

* * *

><p><em>Sorry. Not good at writing dates. I should get some help with that. I hope the build up was good though. <em>

_So, Shadow Broker next eh? That may take time. Both in writing and in personal matters. _

_Suggestions and criticisms are always welcome ladies and gentlemen._

_Ciao_


	8. Panicked Beats

_Alright, Shadow Broker time. _

_Personally, I like this DLC. Must have played it 6 or 7 times by now. Still fun to do._

_Let's hope I do this thing justice then_

_Thanks for all your reviews by the way. I really appreciate them._

_Ciao_

* * *

><p>The Normandy docked into Nos Astra's port with precision ease as could be expected of Joker. Their only outstanding business here was giving Liara the data they had on the Shadow Broker. As this was their old friend they were going to see, Shepard brought Garrus and Tali along to see her. On the walk to Liara's office, Tali struck up a conversation.<p>

"You two said Liara had changed. How has she changed?" Garrus spoke up first.

"Remember that bright eyed but naïve young lady we first had on the SR1? She's basically dead now. Instead we have this…revenge filled husk." Two years had changed them all it seems.

"Do I detect a note of hypocrisy there Garrus?" Shepard's tone spoke out as he stopped to face them.

"I haven't been hunting Sidonis for two years Shepard."

"You're still doing this out of vengeance."

"Don't play holier-than-thou with me on this Shepard. You must have wanted revenge after Mindoir."

"I did. But when we killed those Batarians on X57, was I some bloodthirsty idiot?"

"You yourself said that we should kill Saren rather than bring him in!"

"Sidonis isn't indoctrinated and he didn't have Sovereign."

"You helped me kill Saleon!"

"That one I'll give you. I did. But who fired the shot that killed him Garrus?" The turian growled, glaring hard at his friend. "You want to be like Zaeed? Fine. You're well on your way there." He gestured to Garrus' scars and resumed walking, Tali staying behind to put a comforting hand on Garrus' shoulder.

"He didn't mean any of it Garrus." The vigilante shook his head, chuckling as he did so.

"No he did. He's always trying to teach me important lessons. I'm usually just too stubborn to see them." He looked over at her and gave her a turian smile. "You picked a hell of a boyfriend there Tali." He laughed after seeing what he was sure was her blushing.

"I…come on. Shepard's waiting." She quickly walked off, trying to shut out the sound of Garrus' continued laughter at her embarrassment. She found Shepard waiting in front of a staircase, the same loving look in his eyes he had only showed for her. She stopped in front him and punched his shoulder. He simply raised an eyebrow at her.

"Too much?"

"A little. But he understands." He smiled and pulled her into a hug, letting her rest her head against the shoulder she just punched. She happily complied, wrapping her arms around him with a smile.

"You going to give me a hidden message speech as well?"

"Only that you have a really nice butt." She laughed and shoved him away playfully.

"Perverted bosh'tet!"

"What can I say? I know what I like." He looked over to see Garrus approaching and waved to him. "Here I thought you were getting your face fixed." Garrus laughed, leaning against a wall.

"If I did then I'd probably steal Tali away from you. Turian charm and all that." She shook her head, wrapping her hands around one of Shepard's arms.

"Dream on pyjak."

"Pyjak? Madam you wound me!"

"I'm about to!" Shepard just smiled all the while, pressing a kiss to where Tali's cheek would be. He enjoyed her blush and Garrus' awkward cough.

"Can't you two just get a room already?" Shepard grinned at him.

"Mmm we can make the Main Battery sterile. That should do."

"Oh hell no! Those are my cannons in my room! No sex on my cannons!"

"Spoilsport." He chuckled at the mortified expression on Garrus' face as they ascended the stairs to Liara's office, now thankfully assassin free. The door opened to reveal their favorite Asari at her desk who looked up and smiled upon seeing them.

"Shepard! And you brought two strays this time I see." He laughed while Tali and Garrus feigned hurt. She stood up to give each of them a hug, leaning against her desk when she was done. "So how can I help you today?" Shepard's grin brought back familiar memories.

"You're the lucky winner of this data packet on the Shadow Broker." He handed her the datapad, waiting as she scanned it over. Her expression turned more and more hopeful as she read.

"Guesses on his home base, agent lists…Feron!" The datapad brought up the image of the familiar Drell to Liara.

"Feron?"

"Right. You wouldn't know him. Not truly anyway." She looked up at the group. "Feron helped me retrieve your body from the Shadow Broker and ensured my escape. I thought it was at the cost of his own life but he is still alive after all. After two years…" She paused to wipe away some tears that had started to build up.

"He's a trusted friend then?" She shook her head, laughing softly.

"A friend but not trusted per say. Feron betrayed me more than once during our journey together. He was working for the Shadow Broker and Cerberus and betrayed them both."

"But he helped you escape."

"To be honest Shepard, I don't understand it either. But I owe him my life. Now it looks like I can pay it back by giving him his." She looked back at the picture for a moment before returning her gaze to the group. "I need to analyze somewhere safer. Meet me at my apartment here in Nos Astra. Take a taxi when you have a moment and I'll meet you there." Shepard raised an eyebrow at her.

"You don't want some protection just in case?" She shook her head.

"Protection would just make me a bigger target. Thanks anyway though. I'll see you all soon." She left the office and headed off, leaving Shepard to address the situation.

"This could lead to something big. It might be a good idea to stock up while we're here." Garrus nodded, bringing up his omni-tool.

"Jacob did mention we were running low on some weapon parts. I'll get them and some extra clips in case we need them. In the meantime, I suggest you two find a fast way to Liara's apartment in case we need to rush there."

"Agreed. We'll meet at the Transit Station when we're ready." Garrus left to procure the supplies and Shepard turned to Tali, offering his arm to her. "It's not an ideal date but maybe we can just enjoy each other's company." She smiled and linked her arm with his.

"As long as nothing tries to kill us, it should be fine."

"Hoping for a tranquil evening then?"

"I'd like to be able to enjoy my boyfriend without the need of heavy weapon fire." He chuckled and kissed her cheek again.

"You are too cute sometimes." She shook her flustered head.

"I am not cute. Stop saying that."

"You so are!" The rest of the walk was spent talking, debating on Tali's cuteness, and of course plotting their route to Liara. When Garrus sent them a message telling them he was done and to, "put their pants back on for spirits' sake!" they moved to the station and called their cab.

"Shepard, I know you're a Spectre and you get the best gear, but you have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to omni-tools."

"Are you kidding me? You're seriously going to stand there and argue that the Nexus is better than the Savant? The Savant has way more shield processing power."

"That's why you overclock it! An overclocked Nexus has 10 times the efficiency of even a top-ranking Savant. Plus you can incorporate old tech into their models to make them even better.

"Yeah at the cost of it overheating every five seconds! A Savant doesn't malfunction during any circumstances."

"Until you tap the damn thing on a hard surface. It's not a durable design! It's just rich tech and no use!"

"They helped us kick Saren's ass all across the galaxy did they not?" She huffed and crossed her arms at him.

"Admit the Nexus is better and I'll admit I'm cute. How about that?" He groaned and she smirked in victory.

"You're evil you know that?"

"Saaaaaaay it."

"Fine! The Nexus is better than the Savant." She held up her omni-tool and stopped the recording then.

"I am going to enjoy listening to this."

"Greaaaat. Now for your end. Admit it." She looked at him with fake confusion.

"Admit what John? I don't recall agreeing to anything." He groaned again and she laughed.

"You're the worst Tali."

"I love you too Shepard." He smiled at her and pulled her close, both making their usual pleased noise they made when in each other's embrace.

"You do know you're cute though don't you?" She nodded against him, purring softly.

"Yes John I do. And you are very handsome." He snorted out a laugh at that.

"Lies. If you tell anyone otherwise I'll deny it so hard." She smiled, pressing a makeshift kiss to his neck.

"Admit it for me John?" He sighed dramatically.

"Fiiiiine. I'm handsome. Happy?"

"Always." They stayed close like that even when Garrus came by, shifting about awkwardly. They had to pull away when their cab came though. Shepard got them to the apartment smoothly, ignoring the sarcastic praise Tali and Garrus gave him for his driving skills. As they reached Liara's apartment door, the found the police there instead. They listened as the police listed off what they knew only to have their attention drawn by someone else.

"Shepard!" They looked at the source of the voice.

"Liara!"

* * *

><p><em>Good enough for an opener? Or should I edit this later with the rest of the story as opposed to breaking it up into chapters? Let me know.<em>

_In case I don't get the chance to say it later, Happy Halloween dear readers. Stay safe and pig out._

_Ciao_


	9. Hearts and Minds

_Got a free moment, brought this out. Hiatus is still otherwise in effect though._

_Part two of the Shadow Broker DLC._

_Ciao_

* * *

><p>While the police continued their investigation, Liara brought the group inside the apartment to explain the situation.<p>

"I'm still a little shaken but I'm alright otherwise. Thank you all for coming so quickly." They sat down in Liara's bedroom, subtly forming a protective circle around her in case of another attack.

"Liara, what happened here?" The Asari took a deep breath and launched into her tale.

"I had just finished setting up a meeting with a contact to analyze the data you gave me when a sniper shot at me through the window." She gestured to the broken glass.

"High impact rounds, short distance, but still sloppy." Garrus wasn't a cop for nothing after all.

"The sniper didn't count on my barriers. Probably saved my life." Shepard looked to his Turian friend.

"Any idea what this was about Garrus?"

"Mmm hard to say. Assassinations are common on Illium but Liara has been at this game for two years. They would more likely try to kill who she is rather than herself."

"And the sniper?"

"High impact rounds are designed to leave a mess of the target. Blood Pack members have been known to use it to send a point when it was needed. Based on the short distance, your attempted killer wasn't planning on running after you were killed Liara. Either they planned on observing, or of breaking in here." Shepard looked back at Liara.

"Any ideas Liara?"

"As my only powerful enough adversary is the Shadow Broker, it is safe to assume that the assassin worked for him. Or her. Whatever."

"Agreed. Garrus, call Thane and Kasumi."

"They'll be able to find the culprit. Good thinking Shepard." Garrus moved away from them to place the call.

"Shepard the bigger deal we make out of this the worse off it will be." Shepard shook his head, grinning at Liara.

"Sorry Liara. I happen to like my friends and don't want them killed." She laughed and smiled at him.

"Well, I'm glad you still call me one at least. I know I haven't been very…well friendly since you came back." Tali stiffened at Liara's words, the feelings of resentment for her now former friend making themselves known. Yes those two years had been hard on them all but all Liara can think of is using Shepard for her own means now that he's back? She wanted to blast the Asari's head into an explosive mess!

Recalling the previous assassination though deflated her anger rather quickly.

_As long as she doesn't do anything stupid…like take my John._

Shepard, unaware of his girlfriend's internal thoughts, shrugged casually at Liara's comment.

"Eh. Help me stop the Reapers and I'll call it even." Liara smiled at this, shaking her head lightly at him.

"It is good to see your usual brand of charm has not waned since your departure and subsequent return." Tali bristled at the word 'charm,' but it went unnoticed again.

"You can say it out front Liara. I died, I came back. It's this thing I do." He ran an armored hand through his hair, pushing it back quickly albeit messily. The Asari shook her head again, a frown crossing her features.

"I don't think it's fair sometimes Shepard." She paused, letting out a mirthless chuckle. "Sometimes. Try all the time. You get pinned with the lives of everyone in the galaxy and somehow you're all grins and jokes through it." She looked up at him, sorrow etched into her expression. "You deserve so much better than this."

Shepard simply shrugged again, as one would regard an indifferent opinion on the weather.

"I try not to think about it. Otherwise I'll go insane. More so than usual anyway." He flashed that carefree smile that was truly anything but. Tali had spent enough time with Shepard to understand him better than she had on their first adventure. She knew when all those pressures got to him and how he reacted to it. Like rambling for her, humor was his defense mechanism. She wanted to sit in his lap and hold him close then and there.

Seeing Liara put a comforting hand on his shoulder only brought that possessiveness around again.

"I'm sorry Shepard." The Commander shook his head, his usual grin coming out.

"Don't be. If you had to deal with all this you'd have broken in no time." She scoffed, pulling her hand back and crossing it with its twin across her chest.

"I'll have you know I've done very well over the past two years. I could do just fine at your job." He smirked at her, pleased that he had goaded her into this.

"Then it's settled. You're Commander Shepard now. I am on permanent vacation." He stood up from his spot and headed out of the room. Liara laughed and Tali smiled, happy to see her boyfriend so jovial.

"Okay earlier statement withdrawn. I would stand no chance being you." Shepard sighed dramatically and came back into the room.

"Way to ruin my vacation Liara."

"What are friends for Shepard?"

"Well for starters, they help their other friends figure out why they were wanted dead." The Asari rubbed her temple in thought and frustration.

"Though I have done many things that would warrant an assassination against me, I have plenty of safeguards in place to prevent that from happening. My death would trigger more than one life to crumble to ashes in other words." Shepard nodded along, letting her finish uninterrupted. Tali on the other hand was enjoying the fond, albeit brief, squeeze he was giving her hand while Liara was distracted. She knew he was trying to reassure her of her value to him but it didn't completely quell the feelings of possessiveness she had.

"It's like Garrus said. This was sloppy and rushed. This would have to have been done either as a plan B or something I did very recently would have caused this."

"Something like obtaining the Shadow Broker's location?" She nodded, returning her look to them.

"Something like that. But I haven't been able to decode the information myself. I had to reach for outside help." Garrus chose that moment to return to the room, a Salarian in tow.

"Any chance this is the guy?" Liara looked at the new guest and smiled in relief.

"Yes that's him. This is Sekat." The Salarian bowed in greeting. "He's an expert at decryption. The fact that he's here means…"

"That the decryption is complete Doctor." He handed her a small datadisk. "Though the state of matters here has me worried. What's going on?" Garrus looked at the Salarian and decided to fill him in.

"Suffice it to say, an assassin tried to kill Liara and failed. For your safety, let's leave it at that alright?" Sekat nodded, accepting the story but narrowing his eyes suddenly.

"Assassin hmm? I wonder…" Shepard cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Sekat?"

"Just before I walked into this complex, there was an Asari in full combat armor with a sniper rifle moving very quickly. I could just be seeing things but I think I saw the Spectre symbol on her shoulder." Shepard looked back at Liara, a frown on his features. Sekat took his chance to leave, sensing that his time there was done.

"Either the Broker is more powerful than we thought or you actually managed to piss off the Council Liara." She shook her head vehemently, as if the very idea was preposterous.

"I'm good Shepard but I'm not crazy. Besides, I've had first hand dealings with a Spectre already. The greatest Spectre in the galaxy no less." He grinned at that.

"Happy to oblige. I was hoping it was the latter though. You could have given me a few tips on getting the damned Council to listen to me."

"You could try shouting at them Shepard." He looked at his secret lover at the sound of her sweet voice and grinned wider.

"New plan! I need a megaphone and a ride to the Citadel!" The friends laughed at this, enjoying their Commander's usual brand of humor.

"Spirits can you imagine that working? Shepard shouting the Council into believing him…it actually does seem possible."

"A nice idea Garrus but it wouldn't work in the grand scheme of things." They all looked at Shepard, his gaze not focused on anything at the moment. "The scope is vastly different. They hold the lives of not only their own races, but all races in Citadel space. If they were that spineless, Saren would have had to snarl once at them and they would have given the station over in a heartbeat." He shook his head angrily, Tali putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Politics. What a joke." A silence fell upon them as the reality of how difficult their struggle really was made itself known again. They didn't get much time to dwell on this as Shepard chuckled, catching their attention.

"Well, that's for another time. What does the data say Liara?" She had actually forgotten about it, now putting into her personal computer and viewing the information within.

"Let's see…the base appears to be in the Hourglass Nebula…on planet Hagalaz."

"That's odd. The Flotilla has been through that system before and we never found anything."

"Not to doubt your people Tali but if a simple scan was all it took to find him he wouldn't have been in business very long. Hagalaz has natural storms on the planet, making it uninhabitable. My guess is they must add static to any scanners of passing ships, allowing his base to remain hidden." Tali had to concede that one to Liara. Their ships were old after all.

"So much for your detour to the Citadel then eh Shepard?" Their Commander sighed playfully, getting up and cracking his sore neck.

"Yep. No fun yet, instead we get to kill the biggest criminal in the galaxy. Yay." Liara made herself ready for combat before they headed back to the Normandy. Setting a course for Hagalaz, the crew had some downtime until then. Garrus offered to give Liara a tour of the new Normandy while Shepard returned to his cabin. Tali, after ensuring she wasn't being observed, followed him up. Their time with Liara had awakened a very specific need in her.

The need to make it subtly known that he was hers.

So when she caught her boyfriend by surprise as he was in the midst of removing his armor, she didn't politely turn away and let him finish. Instead, she tackled him to his bed and proceeded with her plan.

* * *

><p><em>No no she didn't shag the git. Not yet anyway.<em>

_Next up, the finale of the Shadow Broker DLC. _

_What then? We'll see._

_Thanks for your patience._

_Ciao_


	10. Cardiac Arrest

_The grand finale is here ladies and gentlemen._

_Pull up a chair, grab some popcorn, and enjoy the show._

_If it sucks, well then it sucks. Eh._

_Ciao_

* * *

><p>The Normandy had entered the orbit of Hagalaz a while ago. The ground team, consisting of Shepard, Tali, Garrus and Liara, were going over their gear one last time. Liara had only guesses on what to expect but they all listened attentively and planned accordingly. They boarded the shuttle, the Normandy's shuttle bay door opening as the shuttle's engines turned on. They rode out of the ship and into Hagalaz's atmosphere, silent on the way there.<p>

Each of them had their own thoughts racing through their minds. Liara was focused on getting Feron out alive. Garrus was thinking on the scale of the enemies they'll be facing, if there are any. Tali was trying desperately to turn her blush down after she had spent several hours with her boyfriend on the ride here.

They all certainly lost their train of thoughts when Shepard slumped forward…and down onto the floor of the shuttle. He snapped right back up, even as Tali moved over to help him up.

"Everything alright Shepard?" Garrus spoke what was on their minds and Shepard simply shook his head, going back into his seat.

"I just realized I haven't slept in 168 hours. Guess it caught up to me." Liara did the math and promptly gasped at the result.

"That's a week Shepard! How can you not have slept in a week?" He shrugged, rubbing a hand down his face.

"It's this thing I do. Plus I've been out of it for a couple years so I have a lot of staying awake to catch up on." Tali shook her head at him, wondering why he didn't get any sleep on the ride here. Then she remembered exactly why he didn't and her blush returned in full force.

_Keelah…damn my feelings!_

"We had hours to get here Shepard. Why not sleep then?" Garrus spoke up again and Shepard looked at him.

"Would have liked to but Mister Illusive felt like a chat. I still hate the stupid fuck but while he's funding us I'll deal with him." Garrus let out a rough sigh at this.

"Ass."

"Tell me about it."

"We have another couple hours before we get to the Broker's base Shepard. Why don't you try and get some sleep while you're here?" Shepard shrugged at Liara's question.

"Not much for comfort in this shuttle and even then, no chance I'll get back up. I don't like doing it but I've got some stimulants with me to at least keep me going for this mission." Tali grew only more worried at this. She didn't like the idea of a mere stim keeping Shepard awake during a mission.

"With all due respect Shepard, I don't have that much faith in you to operate on stims and no sleep. Those guards back on Noveria couldn't handle it, I doubt you can either."

"Suggestions then Garrus?" The Turian turned to face Liara.

"Do you mind if we slowed down Liara?" He hadn't expected her reply to be instantaneous, but she was taking a while to really think it over. Eventually, she shook her head in reply and the shuttle's speed was slowed down.

"It will take four hours now Shepard. I'm sorry but I hope that is enough." He grinned at her and tried to make himself comfortable. Not an easy task in the shuttle and in armor.

"It should be. Sorry." She smiled and leaned back in her seat.

"It's the least I can do. I just hope Feron can hold out." It was about 10 minutes later when Shepard moved back into a sitting position with a huff.

"Great. Now I can't sleep at all. Lousy Cerberus design. You'd think being in the military would have made it easier to sleep on hard surfaces." Garrus, seeing an idea for his friends to get some quality time, spoke up.

"You can use Tali's lap if you like Shepard." Said Quarian blushed deeply at this, looking at their friend in shock.

"Garrus that's-"

"Mine is too bony, and Liara needs to have her legs working I suspect. You and Shepard spend most of combat using your tech skills from cover. Besides, he can always carry you until your legs aren't stiff." Well, that was all the convincing she needed. She looked at Shepard though and he just smiled, shook his head at Garrus, and leaned over until his head was resting comfortably in Tali's lap.

"Thank you Tali. I'll try not to make a habit of this." She smiled down at him, petting his hair back soothingly.

"This or not sleeping for a week?" He grinned at her and closed his eyes.

"Shhh sleeping zombie here." It wasn't even a minute later before he was sound asleep. Garrus leaned against the wall of the shuttle to get some sleep himself, a sentiment shared by Liara as well. Soon it was just Tali who was awake, happy to watch her beloved sleep and stroke his hair back all the while.

It was going to be a very nice four hours.

The time would eventually pass far too quickly for Tali's liking. The image of the Shadow Broker's ship became visible in the Kodiak's window. Reluctantly, she woke John from his slumber with a gentle nudge.

"John…you need to wake up now." To his credit, he woke up promptly, blinking the sleep out of his eyes in seconds. He looked up at his girlfriend and smiled, leaning up to plant a kiss on her vocalizer.

"Thanks Tali. Both for the rest and for going along with Garrus' suggestion." She smiled at him, pressing her helmet against his forehead tenderly.

"It was about time I got to do something for my boyfriend." He chuckled and moved back into his seat, shaking off the rest of the sleep from his body. "But you will be getting a proper rest when we get back to the Normandy."

"Does my Quarian pillow come with?"

"Only if you don't drool on me." He laughed at that, the noise waking Garrus and Liara in the process.

"Sleep well Shepard?"

"Much. How about you two?"

"Rested and ready for the job. Speaking of, how much longer?" Liara looked at her omni-tool briefly before looking back up at Shepard.

"About 5 minutes until we land." Shepard nodded and the crew took one last chance to look over their gear before the shuttle arrived above the ship. The put their helmets on, Tali excluded naturally, and hopped out of the open door onto the ship below. The shuttle returned to the Normandy and they began their trip down to the heart of the ship.

"Now that's you're here Liara, any further ideas of what we might be facing?" She holstered her SMG, looking at the map of the Broker's ship she had now gotten on her omni-tool.

"This ship must have been designed to use Hagalaz's natural storms as power. I'd expect to see some lightning batteries on the ship. As for resistance, I don't have anything. The entire ship could be manned by Husks for all I know."

"There's an unpleasant thought!"

"Agreed. Let's move fast." They moved along the ship at a brisk pace, their journey largely uninterrupted barring the maintenance drones at the start. When they reached a lower section of the ship though, the Broker's private security force made their big appearance. Instinctively, the Normandy crew moved into cover and engaged the enemy while they had the advantage. Before the LOKI mechs had come out, there were already three dead security soldiers.

Shepard and Tali stuck next to each other, getting rid of the synthetics with his Overload and her AI Hacking skills. As the rogue mechs turned on the security, they were forced out of cover and became easy prey to Liara's Singularity and Garrus' rifle fire. The remaining synthetics were dispatched quickly and the crew moved on.

It wasn't until they reached the heart of the ship that progress became difficult. Liara rushed up to the door, placing her bypass program on it quickly.

"Give me a time estimate here Liara." The Asari turned to look at her former Commander.

"No idea Shepard. I've never broken into the Broker's base before. Not this one anyway."

"Okay how good is that program then?"

"It's illegal, even on Illium. So again, no idea."

"Greaaaaat. This should be fun." On cue, they were attacked by the Broker's forces. Shepard and Tali took the left side, sending out their drones and shooting the lightning capacitors to force their enemies out of cover. They quickly gunned them down after that. Garrus and Liara picked the right, emulating the same strategy with the tools and powers at their disposal.

"Why does no one else on our team know how to use a Singularity?! Miranda, Jacob and Thane I'd understand but not Samara or even Jack? Seriously what the hell!"

"By all means take it up with them Garrus!"

"I already took one rocket to the face! Not going for two!"

"Wuss!"

"Bite me Shepard!" The Commander smirked at that, firing off another shot into the capacitor, frying a few unlucky guards to a crisp. He looked over at Tali to see her take off another guard's head clean off with her shotgun. He chuckled at the sight and sent his drone out again.

"So some night out this turned into huh Tali?" She finished her hack on a group of LOKI mechs before crouching back down and looking at him.

"I'm spending time with you Shepard. That's all that matters." He grinned at her and fired off a Phalanx round in between a distracted guard's ears.

"Am I expected to make up for this then?" She smirked at him, throwing out a grenade in the process.

"We'll start with some well deserved rest. Then we'll see about quality time." He chuckled and ducked as a charred corpse flew over his cover from the grenade. He looked over at the program and saw it was past the halfway point.

"60 percent done Liara! How are things on your end?"

"Garrus is being lazy! Or a showoff! I haven't decided yet!"

"I wasn't the scourge of mercenaries for nothing T'Soni!"

"Pick up the slack then Vakarian!" Shepard just smiled at it all. His crew of misfits had become one of the deadliest squads in the galaxy. He didn't get much time to dwell on this though as the very persistent mercs kept his attention. The process kept going like this until the program finally finished, catching Liara's attention.

"The door's open!"

"About fucking time!" They all rushed in, fortune giving them a lull in the combat as they did so. The door sealed shut again behind them.

"Well, only one way out now." Liara took a deep breath, steeled herself and gripped her gun. The others readied themselves as well and headed deeper into the ship. A rocket whizzing by them had them scramble for cover again. Garrus took out the missile user while Liara fired out another Singularity. Shepard and Tali gunned down the vulnerable targets trapped by the biotic and they moved up quickly.

After another fight with the mercs, they came across a room with a large window into the room below. There they saw a Drell trapped in a chair below and surrounded by monitors. Liara recognized him instantly.

"Feron!" She rushed to the panel above him, hoping she could set him free. The Drell turned panicked though at this.

"Wait! Agh!" He convulsed as voltage coursed through him and Liara immediately stopped.

"Feron…" Shepard looked down at the tech in the room, looking for a weak point. Feron noticed this and looked at him.

"I'm tied to the Broker's network. Turn it off, even for a second, and I'm free." Shepard nodded at him.

"Do you have any idea what the Broker is?"

"All I know is that he's big. Really big." Liara looked at her friend, tears coming to her eyes.

"We'll be back for you Feron. I promise."

"I'll try not to go anywhere." They moved on through the ship, getting rid of any resistance with quick efficiency. Eventually, they came to the Broker's office and rushed inside.

As one would expect, he was waiting for them.

"Doctor T'Soni. You're rather late to rescue the Drell." His deep voice rumbled throughout the room. She glared at him, gripping her gun tighter. "And you Shepard. This was reckless even by your standards." He simply grinned at him.

"You'll have to do better than that. Besides, you've made it clear you're already pretty desperate. Or was the sloppy assassination not enough of a giveaway?"

"Sloppy yes, but necessary."

"No it wasn't! Neither was caging Feron for two years!"

"Interesting that you would be here to rescue him T'Soni. Feron betrayed us both after all."

"That doesn't mean he deserves to be tortured!"

"He is simply paying the price." He turned his gaze back to Shepard at this.

"Oh yeah the deal about my corpse. Funny thing you should bring that up considering the Collectors are not spectacular on keeping their end of the deal."

"I have been promised great power human."

"Yeah I'm sure they'll trip over themselves to give that to you. It worked so well for Saren after all."

"Saren was weak-"

"Yeah you're clearly so much better than he was. What part of harvesting all organic life do you not understand? Do you assume they'll leave you alone just cause you did them a solid? It didn't work for Saren and it won't work for you."

"You understand nothing human."

"Oh for fucks sakes. Your arrogance is just off the charts. Can we hurry this up then?"

"Hmph. Your arrival is still fortunate regardless. The Collector's offer still stands."

"You're quite confident for someone with nowhere left to hide." The Broker remained unfazed by this.

"You travel with fascinating companions Doctor. Having almost the entire Normandy crew here will be a useful bargaining tool. They can tear you to bits as they find out how you were able to best Sovereign."

"Yeah that's not really a good idea for me Broker but thanks for the thought." The Broker turned his eye to Garrus at his comment.

"Archangel. Still hiding in Shepard's shadow I see." Garrus gave a Turian shrug at this.

"It's a nice shadow at least. But on the plus side I've still got him beat at sniping so I'm not totally in his shadow."

"Semantics. Work for me and you will surpass him in every way."

"Gee work with the Reaper killer or the Reaper ass kisser. What a choice." The Broker snorted and looked at Tali.

"A surprising choice bringing the Quarian, given her less than ideal leadership skills as of late." Tali rolled her eyes at him.

"Yeah yours have worked wonders so far as well. I'm sure all the mercs out there would agree."

"You're not putting a hand on anyone!" He looked back at Liara.

"It's pointless to challenge me Asari. I know your every secret, while you fumble in the dark." Liara smirked at this.

"Is that so?" She paused to recall all that she had learned since they first landed on this ship. "You're a Yahg, a pre-spaceflight species quarantined to their homeworld for massacring the Council's first contact teams." She gestured to the base around them. "This base is older than your planet's discovery, which probably means you killed the original Shadow Broker 60 years ago, then took over. I'm guessing you were taken by a trophy hunter who wanted a slave…" She paused again to let her smirk turn mocking.

"Or a pet. How am I doing?"

It was clear the Broker was infuriated as he rose up, standing to his full height. Sovereign was huge but he was a machine. This Yahg Broker was not a machine but he was still pretty damn tall. He easily smashed his deck in his two, picking up half and hurling it at them. Shepard quickly pulled Tali out of the way while Garrus grabbed Liara away from the projectile. The Broker roared at them, raising his Revenant for a fight. Shepard and Liara dove for cover at the terminal near the doorway while Tali and Garrus stuck to the pillars in the room. They put the pressure on the Broker, sinking shot after shot through his shield and armor. When that was broken through, the Broker growled at them, activating some kind of barrier.

Liara tested it out, firing a few shot at it only to see them bounce off. "It's kinetically sensitive! Projectiles are just bouncing off." Shepard grinned, cracking his knuckles at this.

"Then we do this the fun way!" He charged in against the Broker while his barrier was up and cracked him across the face with a hard punch. The Yahg recoiled and Shepard didn't let up, following through with another two punches that knocked him back. Shepard charged in to continue but the Broker had other plans. He called up a massive omni-shield and smacked Shepard back easily with it. Tali moved to catch him, grabbing him mid-air and pulling him to relative safety in the room.

"Are you insane?!" She yelled at him, getting angrier when he simply grinned at her and stood back up.

"Why yes I am! Thanks for noticing!" He threw out his drone again, letting it distract the Broker while he drew out his Viper, striking the back of the yahg's head with several quick rounds. The Broker's shields quickly fizzled out from the rapid assault and he focused his attention on Shepard, letting loose a volley of Revenant rounds at him. Tali pulled him back quickly as the rounds just barely missed him.

"You didn't have your shields up bosh'tet!" It was true, her scans of his armour showed that his shields were completely offline. He just chuckled at that and reloaded his Viper.

"Yeah I know. But hey it could be worse." She huffed, rolling her eyes at him.

"How could it be worse?" He smiled and pressed a quick kiss to her helmet.

"Could have been you on the receiving end with no shields." Not giving her a chance to argue, he moved back into the northern piece of cover in the room where Liara was chipping away at the yahg's armor. "Got a plan here Liara?"

"One. Get him to bring up that shield again. I'll handle the rest." He nodded and they resumed their efforts, getting the yahg's armor down in a few minutes. He roared again, his barrier returning in full strength. Shepard quickly moved into action, rushing the Broker again and resuming his assault on him. The same method worked before, only when the Broker went to hit Shepard with the shield, he dodged it quickly and looked to Liara.

"Hit him Liara!" The Asari was more than happy to oblige, sending a powerful biotic blast to the lightning light in the Broker's office. The blast weakened it and Liara pulled it apart then, raining down Hagalaz' powerful lightning on the Broker. He screamed in agony as he was electrocuted to death, his smoldering corpse quickly dissipating to ash.

The four moved out of their cover, the danger now gone. As they began checking themselves for any injuries, a voice caught their attention.

"Shadow Broker, this is Operative Murat. We experienced a momentary connection failure. Can you confirm status?"

* * *

><p><em>You all know what happens from there.<em>

_Oh and I'd be an ass to not give credit where it is due. The lap idea came from a pic on deviantART._

_ art/Lend-Me-Your-Lap-293027731_

_So it was basically totally stolen and the characters switched. Aren't I clever and original._

_Ciao_


	11. Good Friends

_Alright. The aftermath of the Shadow Broker DLC is now. So expect this to be relatively short._

_Ciao_

* * *

><p>Liara was a bit nervous coming onboard the new Normandy. The Cerberus affiliation by itself was not helping matters any. She was the new Shadow Broker now, and her death would severely upset the galactic balance.<p>

Still, she had just helped kill the old Broker and take everything he had. She was feeling rather bulletproof at the moment.

She made her way onto the bridge, having a chat with Joker along the way. The Cerberus crewmen and women she passed were mostly polite, with only a few trying to hide a xenophobic sneer from her. It would be petty and vindictive to use her new network to destroy them in the eyes of the galaxy.

Didn't mean she wouldn't do it though.

She took the elevator up to Shepard's cabin as planned, moving through the open door and seeing Tali, Garrus and Shepard already there. She smiled, happy to see her friends again and this time without people trying to kill them immediately. They were chatting amongst themselves, probably talking about their first adventure together. Shepard looked up at her and grinned.

"A visit from the great Liara T'soni? Who's betting this a PR stunt?" She laughed at that, Garrus and Tali joining in as well.

"I'm betting it's community service. How about you Tali?" The Quarian grinned at Garrus, putting her tube of nutrient paste down.

"I say she's here to spy on us. Who doesn't want to know more about the Savior of the Citadel after all?" Shepard shook his head at his girlfriend, smiling all the while. Liara took a seat with them, handing a framed object to Shepard. He took it and looked at it, his smile dropping as he did so.

"I don't know if you want them Shepard, but there they are." Looking at his old dog tags brought back a familiar sense of pride…and the memory of his demise.

"I'm guessing you didn't pluck these off the crash site huh?" She shook her head, now regretting giving them to him.

"Admiral Hackett helped me find them. I…thought you might like them back…I'm sorry Shepard." Surprisingly, he chuckled and stood up, moving over to his desk and placing the frame on there.

"I do like them Liara. It serves many purposes. Plus I imagine you would all like some method of identifying my stinking carcass at the end of all this." His ability to make light of morbid situations had never stopped surprising the Normandy crew. Within five minutes of the events on Virmire, he made one joke and suddenly the fact that they had lost a friend down there wasn't so painful.

"You make it sound like you're going to be unrecognizable at the end of all this Shepard." He turned to face his vigilante friend, a hollow smile on his face.

"What's there left of me when the Reapers are gone Garrus? It's why I'm here. Why I was brought back." He paused to sigh heavily, his expression downcast.

"Whatever you are, you'll have us Shepard. We aren't leaving you no matter what." His eyes moved over to Tali as she spoke, the hidden meaning in her words clear to him.

"You sure about that Tali? I am sending you and Garrus on a suicide mission after all." She stood up, moving over to him and wrapping him up in a tight hug.

"We won't leave you to fight this alone Shepard. Nothing will change that." He smiled, returning her hug. He ended up laughing when Liara and Garrus gave him one as well.

"Garrus your bony self is really uncomfortable to hug."

"Kiss my ass Shepard." The night went on like this, they chatted and laughed all the while. Eventually Liara stood up to leave and after receiving a farewell hug from everyone, she stopped in the doorway, turning back to face them.

"I know I'm not a good friend for joining up with you but I won't stay out of this either. I'll get you all the information I can on the Reapers, the Collectors, and Cerberus. Anyone at all. Just call me and I'll help." Shepard smiled at her.

"So much for being a bad friend Liara. You're doing pretty well so far at being a good one though." She returned his smile.

"Oh, before I forget, Thane and Kasumi found out who tried to kill me. Interestingly enough, it was an Asari Spectre named Tela Vasir. A Spectre who know works for me." She grinned and left at that. Garrus went back over to the couch to pick up the dextro liquor he had brought up.

"Well Shepard I should get back to the Battery myself. I'm sure you and Tali want some alone time anyway. Plus you're still owed a week of sleep so do take care of that." Giving a Turian grin, he quickly left the cabin to Shepard and Tali.

"I am going to shoot him one of these days." Shepard chuckled at his girlfriend, taking her hand and leading her to his bed.

"Join me in a nap Miss vas Normandy?" She purred at him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Try and stop me Captain."

They both laid down on his preposterously large bed, enjoying the wonderful comfort it brought them. Tali quickly moved herself against him, resting her head on his chest and holding him close. He smiled at her and stroked her hood back, enjoying the soft purr she gave in response.

"Plan on staying here for the whole week Tali?" She smiled and looked up at him.

"I could invite Kasumi and Garrus if you like. We can make it one of your human 'slumber parties'" She laughed at the ensuing groan he made at the idea.

"Uh uh. Sleep in my cabin is for you and me only." She giggled, snuggling closer to him happily.

"Then I will stay with you John." He wrapped his arms around her lovingly and kept her close.

"That's all I can ask of you Tali."

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><p><em>Told ya it would be short. Anyway, in the next Chapter, Shepard thinks about his upgrades in more detail than his post-Overlord chat. <em>

_After that, you'll get a hint. So stick around._

_As always, constructive criticism is welcome._

_Ciao_


	12. Electric Soul

_The point of this one is for Shepard to be reminded of his humanity. Who better to remind him than his love? _

_First person to say someone else gets flambé-d_

_Oh, and you can consider the hiatus officially done. I'm back in business. For now at least._

_Ciao_

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><p>The Normandy had returned to the Citadel under, of all people, Garrus' request. The crew was reminded that their Commander is human and does need to stop once in a while to catch his breath. Naturally, with minimal bitching that was quickly silenced by several glares and a growl from Grunt, the crew agreed and they were docked for some impromptu shore leave. While the ground team and the Cerberus crew went off to do various tasks, their illustrious Commander was doing what most people would do on a Saturday.<p>

He was sleeping the fuck in.

So that was where he was now, sound asleep with Tali still snuggled into him happily. She had no reason to leave him any time soon nor any desire to. So she stayed with him, purring all through their shared slumber. She kept her arms wrapped around him, her head buried deep into his chest while he kept his arms around her in turn.

They slept that way for several hours, still being alone in the ship all the while. Eventually though it was Tali who woke up first, needing the sleep less so than her boyfriend. Blinking the sleep from her eyes, she sat up in Shepard's bed and went about regaining her awareness.

_I'm in a bed…too big for a sleeper pod…this is in a large room as well…Oh now I remember._

Smiling, she looked back at her sleeping love and simply watched his peaceful expression. As opposed to the way he was on the job or even while awake in general, now he looked so calm and serene. She wished he could look like that all the time instead of constantly having to shoulder the burdens of the entire Keelah damned galaxy.

He picked that moment to wake up however, sitting up abruptly and almost colliding with her. His were wide eyed at first but they calmed down upon seeing Tali. He smiled at her and pulled her close for a hug, one she gladly returned.

"Did I wake you John? I'm sorry I didn't mean to." He chuckled softly, keeping her close all the while.

"Nah. Military instincts. I could feel your eyes on me and unfortunately, I thought you were a threat." She gasped in mock offence, thumping his back playfully.

"John how cruel of you. Calling your girlfriend a threat."

"Should I just sleep with you some more then to make up for that?"

"Yes you should. Now lay back down and resume being my pillow." She was smirking and somehow, he knew it. They resumed their snuggle but stayed awake this time, content to enjoy each other's presence. It wasn't until Shepard got a message on his omni-tool that their reverie was ruined. Grumbling, he summoned the gauntlet and opened the inbox, Tali watching his face for a reaction.

By the frown he made, he must not have been happy about what it said.

"John?" He kept his eyes on the message for a while longer before dismissing his omni-tool, returning his gaze to her with an angry huff.

"My dear boss decided to 'apologize' for the events of Overlord. Read between the lines and the stupid fuck wants me to report to a Cerberus base nearby to have my cybernetics upgraded to protect against hacks." That made Tali growl, both at the interruption from their mutual enemy and from the reminder of how much that whole affair had hurt her boyfriend.

"I want to kill that bosh'tet so much." He chuckled softly, giving her a tender squeeze. She quickly relaxed into it, snuggling her head back into his chest.

"Well, he did bring you me sooooo you might have to give him a mercy killing." She smiled, pressing her vocalizer to his chest.

"True. I'll just make him swallow a few grenades. Through his ass." They laughed at that, enjoying the mental picture of the execution happily.

"Jeez you really know how charm a guy there Tali."

"Only the best for you John." He smiled and pressed a kiss to where her forehead would be, silently enjoying the ensuing blush she made at the gesture. "But John, shouldn't you upgrade them then? I mean…just in case?"

She did have a good point that he wouldn't deny. Still…

"To be honest Tali, I'm scared." That got her attention and she moved up to hold his head in her hands.

"Why are you scared John? Are you scared of something going wrong with them?" He shook his head slowly.

"I'm scared of them. I don't know what's in me and it scares me every day. It could be Reaper tech for all I know. Under all this re-made skin…I'm not human anymore Tali." She wanted desperately to rip off her mask and kiss his troubles away. Instead she settled for snuggling back down into his chest, returning her arms to around his torso.

"You are human John. No amount of metal in you will ever change that. And if that doesn't convince you, then consider this." She paused, wishing she could say this another way but knowing it wouldn't work otherwise.

"Am I just a suit and a mask or am I a Quarian under all this?"

The truth of her words hit him hard and he lay there for a few moments, mouth agape in silence. She patiently waited his reply all the while.

"Tali…thank you."

"You're welcome John."

He at least had a healthier view of his cybernetics now…

But he would deny the means to upgrade suggested to him.

"I'll upgrade them, but only under your skills." She snapped her gaze up to him, staring at him in wide eyed shock.

"John that's…I don't have-"

"Yes you do Tali. You do have the skill for this. Who else can I trust anyway? The only other ones would be Chakwas and Mordin, and they are only doctors. Miranda may have rebuilt me but I can't trust that loon one bit."

_Keelah John, why do you have to be right so often?_

She didn't like this idea at all, but she liked the idea of losing her boyfriend to hacking even less.

"Alright John, I'll do it…but I'll need some things first."

"We'll dock somewhere for the supplies then. Shouldn't be too hard." She shook her head at that, sitting up nervously.

"No not that. I can install security programs on your cybernetics…I just need the map of them…which only one person here has." Realization quickly hit Shepard and he groaned in frustration.

"Craaaaap. Sure you can't just cut me open and see for yourself?" She shuddered hard at that idea, latching onto him again in a tight embrace.

"I won't do that. That's a last resort only John." The fear was evident in her tone and it made his heart go out to her. He quickly wrapped his arms around her and kept her close. Her grip never loosened and he knew better than to interrupt her right now. It was a few minutes later when she slowly loosened her hold, he however not pulling back. With a grin, he moved his head close to her audio receivers and spoke in a whisper.

"Sirus."

"Sirus?"

"My actual first name is Sirus. Sirus Jackson Shepard. Terrible huh?" She shook her head against him.

"No it's not. But why not tell me earlier? Unless you didn't want to and I didn't think that through. Keelah, I'm sorry John I didn't-"

"Tali, you're babbling." She kept silent after that, afraid of embarrassing herself further. He took the chance to explain however.

"Back on Mindoir, only my parents called me by my first name. With everyone else it was always, humorously enough, Shepard. When the raid came, I dropped my first name as it seemed pointless to have when no one was around who knew it." She simply listened attentively all the while.

"So…why tell me?"

"It's because I trust you Tali. I trust you with knowing something that no one else in the galaxy knows. So if you need to cut me open, then I trust you with my life. Not the best comparison but I'm no romantic either." She smiled at his words, holding him close again in a loving grip.

"Thank you John…Sirus…nope doesn't sound as good." He laughed hard at that, her smiling wide at hearing him be so happy.

"You're horrible Tali'Zorah."

"I'm yours though." That pleased sound left him and he possessively tightened his hold on her.

"All mine." She happily stayed in his hold for a while longer before one last thought came to her.

"Wait, Sirus Jackson Shepard…where did John come from?" He chuckled and pulled back to look her in the eyes.

"In human culture, John is the first name automatically given to a person that can't be identified. Well, for males anyway. John Doe and for females, Jane Doe. Don't ask me where they got the Doe part." He paused to chuckle again and she giggled softly.

"Since I wasn't saying anything when the Alliance found me, and they couldn't find any identification, they called me a John Doe. So I kept the John part and thus, John Shepard." She simply smiled at the explanation, secretly loving listening to his voice.

"So what should I call you then? Sirus or John?" He grinned at her.

"You can call me whatever you want Tali." She grinned back at him at this.

"Bosh'tet."

"Bosh'tet it is!"

* * *

><p><em>Nice enough for an interlude? Also if the name doesn't work for you then I can keep her calling him John or just remove the section and replace it with something else equally touching. <em>

_Next up? Well though the focus of this story is Shepard and Tali, I thought I'd show how he'd do in the other's loyalty missions._

_So since we are at the Citadel…time to Fade Away and get the Cat in the Cradle._

_Ciao_


	13. Vae Victis

_I like Garrus. His whole character arc really works. From wanting to make a difference, to doing so, to now realizing the repercussions of the differences he made. _

_So he's up first. You're going down Sidonis._

_Ciao_

* * *

><p>The rapid shuttle taxi landed down smoothly at the Zakera Ward entrance. Its door opened automatically and the occupants inside stepped out. A Human clad in heavy, high tech armor and a Quarian clad in their trademark enviro-suit. Surprisingly, they were holding hands as they walked through the ward.<p>

They received some sneers as they passed by and some double takes, as if the very idea was so foreign to them. There were some who thought it was adorable and others who thought the Human was some kind of bounty hunter and the Quarian was the quarry. He must have been holding her hand to prevent her from escaping.

So naturally, most of those people would never have guessed that they were genuinely holding hands in affection for each other.

Again, fuck those people.

For Shepard and Tali, this was one of their hectic lives' simple pleasures. A nice moment to themselves in the midst of their war.

Which was naturally interrupted by Shepard's omni-tool going off with the notices of a new message. Sighing, he opened the interface and he and Tali read its contents.

_Shepard, I found Sidonis. I need help with this._

_-Garrus_

"Gee do we know anyone else who knows my address and is looking for a Sidonis? Of course it's you Garrus." Shaking his head, he let out a rough sigh in frustration.

"You hardly get any time for yourself John." He looked over at Tali, giving her a tired smile.

"I get time with you. And occasionally I engage in sleeping. I figure that's good enough." She rested her head on his shoulder, wishing he wasn't wearing his armour right now. Well at least his shoulder pads anyway.

"Not good enough. Not for you." He chuckled, freeing his hand from hers and wrapping it around her waist instead.

"5 more minutes then we go save our favorite Turian?"

"I wasn't aware we liked Sparatus that much." He laughed and smiled, pleased to give him at least one moment of levity.

"Okay so my terrible sense of humor is rubbing off on you. That'll be something fun to think about while we're hunting." He sent a reply to Garrus, naturally excluding the fact that they weren't going to him right away, and resumed his hold on Tali. She purred happily, getting as close to him as she could.

Eventually they headed over to Garrus, 5 minutes taking in extremely long time in their world of course. They found him outside the Zakera ward warehouse, arms crossed against his chest. It wasn't easy to understand Turian facial expression but anyone passing by would be able to tell he was one pissed off Turian. They stood at his side, looking at the warehouse door with him.

"Sidonis is in there?" Garrus shook his head, his mandibles shuffling about. In what Shepard couldn't tell.

"No. Sidonis got help from someone named Fade. Fade makes people disappear. Now I've got a meeting with him or her and I plan on extracting Sidonis' location from them."

"And just when I forgot my torture tools. What a shame." Garrus rounded about on his friend and grabbed him by the collar of his armor.

"Do not demean my men like this Shepard. Sidonis has to pay for their deaths." Shepard met him head on though, not missing a beat.

"I wasn't aware Fade was named Sidonis."

"I don't need a lecture on morality from you. You told me that taking justice into my own hands was the better option!"

"That's if it is deserved Vakerian. Does Fade deserve to die just for making your quarry disappear? Or are you just so consumed with revenge that you don't care who gets in your way?"

"Need I remind you of Zorya?"

"You're comparing Sidonis to Vido?"

"Why not. You chose to kill him over save the workers. You chose vengeance." That got him a nasty right hook to his bandaged side, making him let go of Shepard and stumble back.

"What's worth more Garrus? A bunch of scared workers who will likely need help recovering from almost being burned alive, or killing the head of one of the top three merc organizations in the galaxy?" He narrowed his eyes at Garrus as he moved to the warehouse entrance.

"We humans have a saying. 'Cut the head off and the body will follow.' So was saving some workers more important than crippling Suns operations indefinitely in the galaxy?" With that, he moved into the warehouse, leaving Garrus and a silent Tali behind. She moved to Garrus to offer her help but just like Illium, he refused.

"I wish I knew how he did it sometimes. Show me something that was right in front me and yet he doesn't rub it in my face." He rubbed his sore face gently as he looked at Tali.

"He's still an ass Tali. But I'm smart enough to know that he's doing the right thing…for both of us. Could he have used more tact? Maybe. Should he?" He paused and looked at the door Shepard had gone through.

"No. A lesson on being a hypocrite maybe but that's about it." He headed inside, now re-thinking his information extraction plan.

The skycar ride to the meeting place was anything from jubilant. Garrus might as well have been frothing at the mouth for how things had gone so far. Whether he'd be doing that in anger or excitement Shepard doubted he'd ever know.

"How will this go down Garrus?" The turian was quiet, the silence hanging again.

"You lure Sidonis out, I shoot him in the head from my vantage point. It'll be quick and painless."

"Quick and painless?"

"Yes. Unlike my men, he'll be spared the agony of a slow death. Happy Shepard?"

"You're still killing someone without knowing everything. Or as you would say, you're pulling the trigger without checking if your aim is good." Growling, Garrus landed the car not far from the meeting spot.

"What do you want from me Shepard?"

"I want you to make the right decision." Garrus snapped around and glared at Shepard.

"By your standards?!"

"That would imply you're trying to be me." Surprising Garrus and Tali, he grabbed Garrus by his armor's collar and yanked him close, hissing right at him.

"You don't want to be me." He pushed the Turian back and got out of the car, ignoring his bewildered expression. "Take your spot and inform me when you're ready." With that, he moved down to the meeting area. Tali stuck around, putting a comforting hand on Garrus' shoulder only for him to push it away harshly, grumbling out a few Turian curses as he moved to a vantage point.

Sighing to herself, she moved down to Shepard's side as she felt she would just be an obstruction to Garrus if she went to him. She stopped next to him and he turned to face her.

"Too much again Tali?" This time she shook her head, taking one of his hands in her own gently.

"I remember what you said to him on Illium about his revenge. I guess the lesson doesn't have the same effect when he's actually pursuing it." Shepard shook his head and looked out into the crowd.

"You know I was betrayed before?" At that her eyes widened, unaware that he had turned on his comm channel on so that Garrus could hear this as well.

"You were? When? Who? Why?" He chuckled and gave her hand a tender squeeze.

"One at a time there Mordin. Yes I was, some years ago, by my temporary second, and for the same reasons I'm suspecting Sidonis has." He could hear a rough but quiet growl from Garrus on the other end.

"How did it happen?" Shepard chuckled bitterly, keeping his eyes on the crowd as he told his tale.

"Not sure if you ever read my file but the big tale is that I was part of the raid on Elysium. Not raiding of course, I don't have the good looks and charm for a job like that. Saving the galaxy though, yeah I've got the moxie for that." He paused to grin at Tali at that before resuming.

"Long story short, about a day into the attack, my second betrayed almost all of us defenders to save himself and his own family." She put the pieces together after that, the truth of his victory now clear.

"You repealed that invasion single handedly because no one else was left to help."

"Give that lady a prize because she got it right. On her first try no less. Bravo. But yeah, I was betrayed and I came out of that whole nightmare a hero." All that remained now was the big question.

"Did you want revenge?" He chuckled and looked back into the crowd.

"I didn't even know I was betrayed by him at first. Thought everyone had up and left. Wouldn't have blamed them but it did make my valiant defense rather redundant." He shook his head, grinning bitterly at the old memories.

"Anyway, when I got all the details, I tracked him down just like Sidonis. He begged, pleaded, and cried for his life. His family chipped in as well actually. Made the whole scene pretty damn poignant. But I wasn't hearing any of it. He needed to pay for his betrayal, and I made him suffer for it."

Tali turned silent as she heard his story. She thought she understood a little better why he told her and Garrus not to be him though. The silence was broken by a flanged sigh on the comm, making Tali jump at the sound.

"How many people did you lose Shepard?"

"Sum total was 300. I didn't know them for two years like you knew your men but I still felt their deaths pretty damn hard. They were civilians mostly, just people who wanted to live, and they were sold out."

"What happened to the traitor?"

"What else? I tortured him, made his family watch, then killed them. I judged that their lives weren't equivalent to the 300 who lost theirs. I made the conscious and willing decision to murder a family Garrus. I murdered them out of revenge and it's haunted me for both of my lives." He looked to where Garrus was.

"Don't make my mistakes Garrus. Have a clear head and listen to Sidonis." The silence returned and Shepard simply waited for his friend to make a decision.

"…Distract him, I'll sit next to him, and have a chat with him myself." Shepard smiled and nodded at Garrus, moving out into the plaza to Sidonis' spot.

The distraction lasted long enough, Shepard pretended to play a tourist and got some directions from Sidonis while Garrus sat next to him. At a subtle nod, Shepard left the two to their discussion, turning the comm channel off as a courtesy. When Sidonis turned back and saw the face of his former boss, he looked absolutely terrified. Instead of shooting him though, Garrus just sighed, put a hand on Sidonis' shoulder, and spoke.

"Tell me why Sidonis."

Shepard and Tali waited back at the skycar, not in each other's arms this time. Exhaling roughly, Shepard leaned against the car and faced her directly.

"Your white knight is tarnished eh? You can still get out now if you like. No strings attached here." Instead she just looked at him in silence for a moment, neither of them pulling away.

"You didn't do all of that did you?" He smirked and shook his head.

"You're good. But you're half wrong. I did get revenge for those people, but there wasn't any family there. They'd left the second he fessed up. He begged for death instead. I still made him work for it but outside of that, everything else was a lie."

"Was telling Garrus a lie a better option?" At that he laughed, a dark and hollow sound that made her step back from him. He stopped quickly though and flashed a menacing grin at her.

"Like I said, don't be me."

* * *

><p><em>That was fun to write.<em>

_Thane's next._

_Ciao_


	14. Bloody Bonds

_Change in plans. An anon reminded me that I've already done Thane's loyalty mission. It was mentioned back in Chapter 5. Whoops._

_Well at least I haven't started writing it. Back to the regularly scheduled update._

_Holidays already huh people? Beautiful times aren't they?_

_Except for the fucking ice. The snow is still okay with me._

_Anyway, it's time for space cigars! Points for the reference because it was goddamn hilarious. _

_Oddly enough I should have made this chapter 13 techically. You get 5 missions, any 5, to do before you can get access to this job. Oh well._

_I'm terrible at writing combat scenes. So I'll just skip to the aftermath if that's alright._

_Two in one day. Good lord._

_Ciao_

* * *

><p>The Kodiak docked back in the Normandy's shuttle bay, the occupants inside exiting slowly. Their bones ached, their skin hurt, and they were bloody pissed.<p>

Well all but one of them anyway.

"Shepard, even with the risk it was a calculated risk. Think about what we've learned from the datamine and about the Collectors in general." Miranda, Shepard had to remind himself, was a tactician as well as being loyal to Cerberus. It was Garrus who spoke up next, his words surprising the group.

"Like it or not she does have a point. The Collectors needed to believe they had the advantage." A sniff from Mordin drew eyes to him.

"Agreed. Collectors needed to think they had advantage. Trap was sprung but still failed. Data acquired at cost to Collectors. Now have greater understanding and knowledge of plans." Zaeed stepped up next, cracking his stiff neck.

"Plus we outsmarted the bastards. They had home court advantage, better tech, greater numbers and an ambush and we still got out. Harbinger is probably shitting a brick right now." Shepard huffed, taking off his helmet and holding it at his side.

"Okay okay you made your points. Yes I can see it as well but I do not like it by any means. So you can stop trying to convince me otherwise." Those that spoke appeared relieved at that, with some of the others still angry at the deception and at least one just not caring at all.

"Well you'll get the chance to let him know that Commander cause he's on the QEC right now." Joker's voice came in over the intercom and Shepard frowned at the message.

"Tell him to suck a fat one. We're all on medically induced shore leave until further notice." He paused to look back at Mordin. "Mordin, you're first in line. Get your injuries treated by Chakwas and then assist her with treating everyone else. After that, you've got the day off. Whether you use it to rest or solve more secrets of the universe I don't care. Oh, and that's an order as well." Reluctantly, the Salarian nodded, making his way to the elevator.

"As for the rest of you, assess your own injuries, send them to Chakwas, and report to the med bay when she tells you to. Outside of that, return to your quarters and stations. Good job today." The rest of the crew went to the elevator as well and took it up, leaving only Shepard, Tali, Garrus and Miranda staying behind.

"Shepard…" He held up his hand, cutting Miranda off.

"Miranda, I'm not going to flip off on the stupid git. He made a logical, if irritating, decision. He doesn't need to fear revenge from me for this. While you're here though," he lowered his hand, "after being patched up your next order is to look through the data EDI extracted from the Collector ship. Have some kind of summary ready for the next meeting." She nodded at him, bringing up her omni-tool to look over what EDI had decoded thus far. He looked over at Garrus, a slight wince leaving him as he saw his best friend's injuries.

"Garrus, I want a statistic on those new cannons. Let's see how well your endless calibrations have improved them." The Turian nodded and Shepard turned to Tali.

"Tali, same thing but with the shields. We only just installed those new ones so I want to make sure we aren't dead in space when those shields require a lot of power." She could tell he wanted to say and do more but with Miranda still there, they were limited to discretion.

"Right Shepard. I'll have it ready soon." She made to leave only for him to grab her arm in passing. She stiffened at it and looked at him for explanation.

"You're after Mordin for treatment. I don't want you getting sick again if your suit is damaged. And that is an order Miss vas Normandy." She shuddered at the way her new name rolled off his tongue and resisted the urge to pounce on him. Still, she nodded in reply and headed to the now open elevator, which had thankfully returned in time. Garrus and Miranda soon followed while Shepard hung back, looking up at the Kodiak oddly enough. Miranda held a hand in front of the door to stop the elevator from closing.

"Shepard? Are you coming?" He shook his head, keeping his eyes on the shuttle.

"No I think the shuttle got dinged a few times. I'll look it over and see if we need any replacement parts. I'll catch up don't worry." Shrugging, Miranda pulled her hand back and let the elevator close. The passengers inside got off at their respective stations and went about completing their orders.

Fortunately, none of this took very long. It was a few hours later when all was said and done. The crew was all patched up and Shepard had gotten the reports he wanted. By that time it was late, well late as per the Normandy's schedule anyway. Shepard had elected to hold the meeting and subsequent chat with The Illusive Man tomorrow. He received no complaints naturally and retired to his cabin to read over the reports. He sat at his desk, reading them over for some time. It was actually late in the morning when he was graced with a guest's presence at his door.

"Enter at your own risk." The door slid open to reveal Samara surprisingly enough. The Justicar entered his cabin with a cup of something he did not recognize. She put it on his desk without a word. Shepard, sensing he wasn't going to get a word from her unless asked, did just that.

"If you came to talk you could have picked a nicer time Samara. Not even a cup of something will bribe me enough for that right now." She let out a small smile and stood before him.

"I have not worked with anyone in centuries Shepard. It was refreshing to have people at my side again, even in such a dangerous mission as this." He nodded along, looking over at the cup.

"So this is a thank you gift then?" She shook her head briefly.

"Yes and no. I am thanking you for your time spent defending me on the Collector ship. Before you assume to tell me otherwise, I am old Shepard but I am not blind. I saw as you willingly stepped into the line of fire to protect Mordin and myself while he tended to my injuries." He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Aw shucks, t'weren't nuthing there Miss. Seriously though, you're welcome. I can't have you dying and the galaxy losing such a great person now can I?" She smiled again, small like before.

"You are a rare individual Shepard." She looked over to the cup. "It was something my mother made for me, and I for my daughters. It was something I wished to share." He picked up the cup and sniffed its contents.

"Oooh, smells like chocolate. But I hate to break it to you Samara but I'm reasonably sure I'm no lady nor am I an Asari. It has been a while since I looked in the mirror so maybe that changed on me." Surprisingly, the Justicar let out a soft laugh, looking back at him.

"You are a protector on the field, and a friend everywhere else." She gestured to the cup. "In your language, it would be called Moon Flower Tea. We Asari gift it to those with whom we entrust our lives to." He looked down at the cup briefly before looking back at Samara with a grin.

"Well now I can't drink it. How else will I know you trust me then?" Samara smiled, larger than the others this time.

"Thank you Shepard. You are a good friend." With that, she left his cabin. He looked back at the contents and with a smile, took a sip of some.

"Well there go humans being good at tea making." He chuckled to himself and resumed his reading of Tali's report. He found he wasn't paying full attention however, his thoughts flitting back and forth between the report and the writer of it. He knew she was careful when it came to suit ruptures but that didn't stop him from worrying.

Incidentally, the door opened to reveal said Quarian.

He chuckled internally. _Speak of the devil…_

"You a mind reader now Tali? I was just thinking about you." She moved over to him and pried the report away.

"I believe you were ordered to get some rest Commander. You're not doing a very good job of that." He smirked at her, looking up at her from his seat.

"I recall being told to sleep, not ordered. I'm afraid you have the wrong guy there miss." She shook her head, putting her hands on her hips in playful authority.

"Bed John. Now."

"How forward of you."

"I have a shotgun."

"Suddenly bed seems very nice." Grinning, he stood up and moved over to his bed, laying down on it quickly. She smiled and joined him, laying beside him and snuggling up to him.

"Sleeping pods full? Or you just preferred this?"

"Please stop talking for one night John. I want you to sleep." He raised an eyebrow at that.

"Something I should know?" She didn't respond to that and after waiting a while, he shrugged and got comfy on the bed.

"Sleep well Tali."

"You first." Regardless of her irregular behavior, he complied. Sleep quickly claimed him, leaving her a moment to look at the man who had captured her heart and shared it with his own. She gently ran a gloved hand down his cheek, sighing softly in the process.

"This galaxy doesn't deserve you John. Not after what you've done for it." Snuggling down into his chest, she hoped that her dreams at least would chase her worries away.

Shepard on the other hand wasn't so lucky.

* * *

><p><em>Loved ones worry, Tali is no exception. <em>

_If the Samara bit seems out of place, my bad. I like her character's black and white perspective on basically everything, but I wanted to show her adjustment to having friends. Like Thane's chat with Shepard in ME2. Thus this was an attempt at Samara realizing that she has friends now, people she can count on to help her. That was the intention of course._

_Anyway, back to the rest of this long note._

_Doing someone else's loyalty mission is a bit difficult with my Shepard. As you probably figured out from the previous chapter, he's not always bad jokes and humor._

_I think it's a matter of how I would approach the situation and then filtering that through Shepard to see how he would handle it. _

_So for example, Oriana. With such a lack of information regarding Miranda's upbringing, it's hard to sympathize with her during her loyalty mission. We are supposed to assume it was bad, but based on her somewhat cocky personality, it's difficult to tell if how she describes it is genuine or an exaggeration. Outside of that I like her character, even the cocky bits._

_Jacob's dad never struck me as some real monster. A man who made mistakes certainly but far from the viewpoint we're supposed to have of him. I get the feeling my Shepard's persona wouldn't be the best for a situation like that and I don't want to change it because it'll cause too much of an imbalance._

_Mordin is not easy. Personally, I see why the genophage was necessary and why he defends it so fervently. I really respect his character for that. I just don't think I could do him justice in my story._

_I suck at combat scenes so no Grunt. Zaeed has already been mentioned. Kasumi was entertaining but I've given her some time already._

_Jack I wouldn't mind writing about. It's just the balance between profanity and her somber mood during the mission that is the current curveball._

_Samara I am definitely using. Mostly for bits about possessiveness on Tali's part and because it's a further sign of her trust in Shepard and the crew_

_And Legion? We'll see won't we?_

_Next up, another interlude. Irritatingly short, but it's for laying groundwork. Enjoy._

_Ciao_


	15. Into The Mind

_I'm sure you'll figure out what this is before you finish reading it._

_No long note this time. Nor no long chapter. You'll understand._

_Ciao_

* * *

><p>Despite being forced into his bed by his Quarian girlfriend, Shepard was having a rather pleasant sleep. Many years in the military had left him unable to appreciate the benefits and allure of a deep sleep.<p>

Which was why he would have been surprised to find himself in a very content and deep slumber. Perhaps his shapely blanket was a factor in this. But who can guess.

Still, he was no stranger to the realm of dreams. But this was a particularly strange one.

_"__Shepard! Excellent timing! Good to have you here." I smiled upon seeing the face of Mordin Solus. His presence was never welcome, but with what he said it sounded like I was the guest here. Speaking of, where is here?_

_I looked around, seeing a laboratory of some kind. If Mordin's here, it's probably STG related. Wonder what they're solving this time? _

_"__These…didn't survive." Oops. Mordin had been talking this time. Wait what didn't survive? …Are those Krogan in there?_

_"__Mordin this whole place is coming down! There's got to be another way!" Another way? What's coming down? Are we still in the same lab?_

_"__STG countermeasures in place, remote bypass impossible! Need to adjust for temperature variance at top of tower!"_

_"__You've always defended your work before!" Mordin whipped around and shouted at me._

_"__I MADE A MISTAKE!" A mistake? Mordin's too precise and intelligent for that. How could he have…wait what am I doing? No! Put the gun down Sirus!_

_The scenery moved again before I pulled the trigger, making me exhale a sigh of relief. That was not a nice nightmare. _

_Now where am I? These walls…I'm on the Citadel! Okay at least it's familiar turf now. Why here though?_

_"__Three against one pal. It's over." My own voice drew my attention and I saw myself with Garrus and Liara at my side. I looked to who they were talking to and saw a human male, no idea of his nationality, dressed in black armour with Cerberus logos on it. The armour was form-fitting, likely for finesse. So whoever this guy was, he needed to move quickly. Infiltrator maybe?_

_"__No. Now it's fun." He had some kind of energy coming from his palm. Some kind of gun? Wait someone is coming up behind him…Thane!_

_I saw the Cerberus goon waste no time though. He quickly rounded about on Thane and the two fought. I knew this goon was going to lose. Thane would kick his ass in no time._

_Except to my horror, I saw the fight was not going in Thane's direction. Thane knocked him back with a biotic punch to the face. The goon quickly got back up though, grabbing that sword and charging Thane. Thane charged as well, leaping up to strike him down…_

_"__Do you remember the question that caused the Creators to attack us, Tali'Zorah?" Wait a minute, what is that? A talking Geth? _

_"__Does this unit have a soul?" That's…an odd thing to ask. Is that really what started the war? _

_"__I'm sorry." I quickly turned around to see Tali, now maskless, standing on a the edge of a cliff. Immediately I ran to her, desperate to pull her closer._

_But my hand reached nothing…she had fallen to her death…_

_"__Wake up."_

_My anguish was replaced by confusion as I looked around again. What I saw wasn't somewhere I recognized. And who or what the fuck is the see through kid thing?_

_"__Who are you?"_

_"__I am –"_

_"__I thought the - was –"_

_"__No. - is part of me."_

_"__I need to stop the Reapers. Do you know how I can do that?"_

_Why were parts of what we were saying muted? What are these details I'm missing?_

_" – __Storing the old life in Reaper form."_

_Old life? The Protheans? So they made a Prothean Reaper? Was it Soverign?_

_"__I think we'd rather keep our own form."_

_"__No you can't –"_

_That makes no sense! No one has the right to determine something like that for an entire race._

_"__I welcome their involvement. I am only doing what they created me to do."_

_Created? Like an AI? So this thing was an AI then. That explained a few things._

_"__My solution won't work anymore."_

_"__So what do we do now?"_

_"__It is now in your power to destroy us."_

_Destroy us? Destroy the Reapers? That kid must be the leader then. _

_" – __will not discriminate. All synthetics will be targeted."_

_Wait all of them? I bear no love for the geth or those damn security mechs but they don't all deserve to die._

_"__Bullshit."_

Shepard awoke with a jolt, inadvertently waking up Tali in the process. She sat up, a reprimand on her tongue only to see his expression.

He looked…afraid. Afraid and very confused.

"John?" He turned to her and she could see his dilemma clearly. He wasn't even attempting to mask it. Whatever this was must have really thrown him off.

"John, you're okay. It was just a nightmare." He shook his head at that, his brow furrowing in recollection of the dream.

"No, not a nightmare. Not all of it anyway. It was odd…almost like seeing the future." Her eyes widened at that.

"Seeing the future?"

"Well it's just a guess." She moved her hands to his own and held them lovingly.

"What did you see?" He let out an empty chuckle.

"More like what I didn't. I saw Mordin, we were in some lab and then a tower. He shouted that he had made a mistake…and then I raised my gun at him…" He shook his head slowly, as if disbelieving the whole thing. Tali held him tighter, hoping that it would work.

"I saw Thane next. He was fighting some Cerberus lackey. It looked like he was about to win, and then things got even stranger."

"How so?"

"Even you will think I'm crazy for this. I saw a Geth, it was speaking, and it said, 'Does this unit have a soul?'" At those words, Tali pulled away and stiffened, staring at him in complete surprise. He looked at her with a worried expression.

"Uh…something I said?"

"John, that's what the Geth asked us 300 years ago. That's what drove us to destroy them because they were becoming full artificial intelligences." He cocked an eyebrow in surprise.

"That's what started it huh? In fairness I can see why you would attack them then." At that he heard her give a heavy sigh of relief, moving back into her place against him.

"Thank you for understanding John. What else did you see?"

He hummed thoughtfully as he tried to recall the details.

"There was this…construct. AI no less. I think it was supposed to be the leader of the Reapers."

"The leader? You dreamt about that?"

"Hey I tried dreaming about you. Not my fault my subconscious rebelled against me." At that she smiled and laughed, punching his arm playfully. He smiled back and continued the recap.

"The weirdest part was when I heard that 'it is now in your power to destroy us.'"

"Destroy who?"

"The Reapers I think. Whatever I had, it allowed me to destroy them…but I think I heard that all synthetics would go with it."

"Something that killed all synthetic life in the galaxy?"

"Yeah. It would get rid of the Reapers but for a cost like that…I don't know Tali. Maybe I heard it wrong." He laid back down on the bed and wrapped his arms around her again.

"John…"

"I'll be okay Tali. I've got you here so I'll be okay." She smiled and moved back into her spot. They fell back asleep, but the dream remained in Shepard's mind. As did the haunting memory of Tali falling to her death. He didn't know what caused it, but he hoped he could prevent it if it ever did happen.

He would come to realize the value of the dream eventually.

But that's for later. For now, the Normandy crew was prepping for their newest job. Their charming benefactor had informed Shepard that a derelict Reaper had been found.

"So in summary, we got the short straw here and now we get to go see Sovereign junior or something. Any questions that don't involve violence against the Illusive Man?" Unsurprisingly, no one raised their hand then.

"Terrific. Gear up and head to the airlock. All hands on deck for this one."

For Shepard, nothing had really made sense since Eden Prime. Now, it was somehow about to make even less sense than before.

* * *

><p><em>Like I said, laying groundwork.<em>

_Had this up earlier, deleted it to make some edits. My bad._

_Ciao_


	16. Domo Arigato Mr Roboto

_I will not apologize for the title of this chapter. I thought it was funny and I had nothing better anyway._

_Anyway, like with the Collector ship this is an aftermath bit. This time I have a better reason for it._

_You all know what actually happens in the Collector ship and Horizon and all that crap. So my writing it would be largely redundant unless I featured, usually prominently, the main feature of the story that isn't in the original material. In other words, unless I put in a lot of Talimancing, it wouldn't be much of a chapter of my own. It would just be the original in-game content._

_So I feel that this way works better._

_Or I'm lazy and/or unskilled at combat scenes. Probably both. _

_Speaking of Horizon, I haven't said who the Virmire survivor was yet. Any preferences?_

_Ciao_

* * *

><p>Tali was not happy.<p>

As opposed to usually being secretly elated while in her boyfriend's presence, this time she was blatantly upset. Seeing the Geth he was bringing onto the ship gave the crew a pretty good guess as to why the normally upbeat Quarian looked like she was about to tear everyone's head off.

Still, she could see this from his perspective. Utilize every resource, like a Quarian, in the fight that they aren't receiving help in.

Okay Cerberus was funding them but she could freely choose not to acknowledge them.

So that was why she was helping EDI, oddly enough, set up firewalls to protect against Geth hacking attacks. The last thing they needed was the Normandy under control of another enemy of her people. Fortunately it didn't take long, leaving her ample time to glare at Shepard and prepare a civil and very well thought out argument.

"What the hell is wrong with you Shepard?!"

Well so much for civil.

"All manner of things. But the current point you're getting confrontational about is our new guest. Go ahead. Yell at me about how I've betrayed you or how I've got no respect for you or whatever crap you think up Tali because I can guarantee that you are way off in why you think I brought the robot on board with us." He leaned back against the railing in the AI Core, crossing his arms in preparation. "So go ahead. Yell away."

She growled, actually growled, at him.

"This is not the time for humor Shepard. You brought a Geth, an enemy of us both, onto the ship! What insanity possessed you to do this?!" He rolled his eyes at her and she fumed at that, a sharp retort already on her tongue.

"I was thinking that we need every available resource we can get here. I was thinking that this Geth not only spoke to us, but it bloody saved us as well." Narrowing his eyes, he stepped in close to her and lowered his voice. "I am also thinking that I have the greatest technical mind in the galaxy in the same room as me and that she might like a chance to help her people further in the fight against her people's enemies."

"How could bringing the Geth here help my people? It will probably activate any second now and kill us all!" He looked over at the Geth.

"I may not be as skilled as you but I doubt that it will just turn itself on." He looked back to her, unhappy to see the glare still in her eyes. "I can't believe I'm saying this but think like Xen for a moment. You have a Geth you can poke and prod to find every little secret about. This could help your people better understand how to beat them and reclaim your homeworld."

She huffed and looked away, too angry to give him the point but not angry enough to realize that he had it.

"I passed up finds like this before because they were too dangerous Shepard. This cannot turn out well for anyone. I don't want the Normandy to become the Alarei." She turned to face the Geth, her back to him. A silence hung in the air for a while before he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. She quickly found herself wishing she could just relax into his hold but her eyes on the Geth kept her anger going.

"Tali, I'll accept that you're angry about the Geth being here. But why are you truly so mad?" She did nothing at first, gathering her thoughts. Eventually she put her hands on his and sighed heavily.

"I don't want to lose the best thing in my life to the worst thing." She wished that wasn't her reason as it made her feel like she had no faith in her boyfriend's survival skills. As if knowing her thoughts, he chuckled and pulled her closer to him.

"Okay in fairness that I can understand. But Tali, have a little faith in me." She shook her head angrily, turning in his arms to face him.

"Quarians don't have much to themselves Shepard. Someone we share our lives with is the one thing we won't lose." He smiled, pulling her into a hug. She quickly wrapped her arms around him in turn.

"Then I'll stay alive for you Tali. Don't tell Garrus though he might get upset." She laughed, happy to let the whole day roll off her with one simple joke.

"You better John." Eventually they pulled away, returning their attention to the Geth.

"Suggestions that don't involve bullets or the airlock Tali?" The Quarian glared down at the body while she thought of an answer. Shepard simply stood by her side all the while patiently.

"Still plenty of ways to destroy the damn thing without bullets and airlocks, but I know you don't want that."

"You know me so well." She shook her head again, putting a hand on her visor in frustration.

"We can bring it online, interrogate it, and if it's useless we destroy it. That's the only plan I'll agree to." He chuckled at her plan, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close.

"Best plan I've ever heard."

"Good. Bosh'tet."

"Only for you. Now are the firewalls ready?" She nodded and he brought up his omni-tool, beginning the activation program on the Geth. Sparks flew around the machine as it worked, the flashlight head quickly lighting up as the Geth regained consciousness. It sat up abruptly and Shepard pulled back, Tali bringing out her shotgun on reflex and aiming it at the Geth. It seemed to gain awareness of its surroundings for a moment, turning its gaze around the room. When it found Shepard and Tali, it stood up to address them. Shepard stood in front of it, intentionally blocking Tali's shot in the process.

"Can you understand me?" The Geth was silent at first, likely assessing the threat Tali posed and the barrier surrounding him.

"Yes."

"Are you going to attack me?"

"No."

"Well we're off to a great start."

* * *

><p>Tali thought she would be feeling relief upon leaving the AI Core. Relief that the Geth was destroyed, John had agreed with her, and everything was going to be okay.<p>

Instead she walked out feeling confused and yet strangely hopeful. The idea of peace between their ancestral enemy seemed so outrageous and yet there the Geth was, telling her that it was possible.

Oh right, it had a name now. Legion.

Since John needed them all to work together, and she had managed to work with Cerberus so far it doesn't seem too outlandish for her to at least tolerate Legion. That was simply in public however. In private she would be contemplating all the ways she could sabotage the thing if it ever went out of line.

Yet she couldn't muster the anger she usually held for the synthetic race. The idea that peace, peace with the Geth, could net her people back their homeworld had her doing internal jumps for joy. She couldn't decide between keeping it secret and letting the Admiralty know.

Then again, she would be viewed as mentally unstable and they did try to exile her recently. Maybe she'll keep it secret for right now.

It was some time later when she had to give that idea some serious reconsideration. She was working at her terminal in engineering, she had forgotten on what it was she was working on by now, when Legion had popped in for a visit. After apparently scaring Jack and Zaeed, it had come into the section of engineering that she, Ken and Gabby worked in. It spoke to the other two first, asking them questions about their nationality of all things, before it came down to her. She had to really fight back the urge to grab her shotgun and shoot it till it stopped moving.

"Creator Zorah, we have an inquiry."

_Of course the Geth has a question…_

"I'm busy Legion. No time for questions." The Geth raised a flap in reply, as if disbelieving her.

"You have set Normandy's shielding system on an upgrade. It will take time to finish. You are currently not working otherwise." She growled at it, throwing her hands up in frustration and leaning against her console.

"Fine Legion! What do you want?!" Legion was silent again and she was sure it was judging her.

"We understand your hostility towards us. To facilitate unit cohesion, we offer a token of our cooperation." Tali rolled her eyes behind her mask.

"What could you possibly give me that would help me tolerate you during this mission?" The Geth's head flaps moved about in an emulation of contemplation before it spoke.

"We have acquired the coordinates of a heretic Geth station. The heretics plan to distribute a virus that will force all true Geth into accepting their viewpoint. We offer assistance in destroying this station." At that she paused to think.

_The chance to blow up more Geth is always welcome with my people…but it is a Geth who gave me this information. I need to think about this some more either way._

She looked back at Legion who had been standing there patiently. She never thought she'd do this, but it was like it said. Unit cohesion.

"Thank you Legion."

"Acknowledged." As Legion walked away, she found herself thinking of informing the Fleet again.

_Could we get our homeworld back without bloodshed? Or am I just being an idealist idiot…_

However Legion's presence had jogged a memory in Tali's mind. She quickly sent Shepard a message expressing her worries through her omni-tool. She got a prompt reply, but it didn't ease her fears at all.

_It talks, like the Geth from my dream. I didn't get a good look at the dream one. If it was Legion…we better hope this peace thing will pan out._

_-Shepard_

* * *

><p><em>I love Legion. Third favorite character. But damn writing for him is hard.<em>

_Anyway, Heretic Station and the ensuing confrontation was next, but due to my poor planning, I haven't put in a couple chapters I want to mention yet. So my story will have a couple intervals next._

_Ciao_


	17. Old Wounds, New Bandages

_I haven't written anything for Jack yet, which I feel is a bit of a personal failing. Granted, I haven't done that for Jacob either but I'm working on it. _

_I find it hard to hate Jack's character. As opposed to Miranda, we are given a glimpse of what Jack has suffered in her lifetime. Her rage against Cerberus feels justified. Her destructive ways to everything else does not. If anything, she just comes across as out of control. An obvious observation granted but one nonetheless._

_She mellows out significantly in ME3 thanks to the kids, which really brings her character along. As opposed to being violent for the sake of violence, she's defending her kids and other people now. It works in my opinion._

_But you've humored me enough by reading this. On with the chapter._

* * *

><p><em>Ciao.<em>

"Shepard, we have reached Pragia's orbit." EDI's synthesized voice rang out through the CIC. Shepard nodded in reply and moved to the elevator.

"Let Jack and Jacob know EDI. Have them meet me at the shuttle ASAP." He took the elevator down to the shuttle bay, finding his armor and weapons already waiting for him. As soon as he had finished putting them on, the elevator doors opened again to reveal Jack and Jacob as requested. He looked at them to address them.

"We don't know what we'll find down there and it doesn't matter. We're here to destroy the place. Any questions?" Predictably, Jack spoke up.

"Why is the Cerberus pup with us on this one?" He saw Jacob roll his eyes at her comment and felt like doing the same himself.

"You'll see. For now, we have a job to do. A very fun one but one to do nonetheless. Grab your weapons, charge your amps, and into the shuttle." At that, Jacob spoke up.

"Uh…amps don't work that way Commander."

"Learn something new every day then. Now mosey Lieutenant."

Jacob smiled and moved in, Jack following after him and sitting across from him. Shepard moved into the co-pilot's seat, leaving the two there. As expected, they didn't talk much for some time until it was Jack who started conversation.

"So, how do your biotics make you feel?" Jacob raised an eyebrow at that before straightening up in his seat.

"Tingly, like most. Sometimes I feel cold even. Never hot which I suppose is good."

"Uh huh. Why would that be so good?"

"Well it's basically what do you prefer? Being hot or cold? And by extent, do you prefer dehydration or being frozen?"

"Done the frozen stuff to people before. They never minded when it was done." She smirked, reveling in her violent ways. Surprisingly, Jacob didn't chastise her for it.

"Then what does that feel like to you?" At that her smirk dropped and she looked confused.

"The fuck does that mean?"

"You froze someone completely solid, with cryo rounds I'm assuming. How did it feel?" She huffed, crossing her arms against her chest. A guarded position as Jacob knew.

"It wasn't anything special."

"Then why take pride in telling it to me? You wanted to unsettle me, and instead I'm only curious." She growled, narrowing her eyes in a glare.

"Fuck off Cerberus pup. You a shrink now to? Getting lessons from our gallant leader?" Jacob didn't glare back at her, or even look affronted for that matter.

"When was the last time we actually talked Jack? Not mission updates, not shotgun maintenance, just actually talked?" She didn't reply but her glare had at least softened slightly.

"So, humor me. What does it feel like to kill someone with say…incendiary rounds?" At that she brought back that same vicious smirk.

"Pretty fucking great. How about you?"

* * *

><p>The shuttle landed on the facility's roof, the sound disrupting Jacob and Jack's conversation. The reminder of why they were here returned to Jack and she suddenly stopped her animated discussion of execution methods entirely. She just sat there in silence, her head hung low. She felt a hand on her shoulder and took a deep breath, standing up and opening the shuttle doors.<p>

"Let's nuke this fucking shithole."

They proceeded into the facility, spotting a large amount of storage crates. While Jacob and Shepard could guess what this place was, Jack knew all too well what it was.

"I didn't get to see this place. I think they brought new kids in the containers." Jacob moved over to a crate, brushing some dust off it to reveal the logo.

"Horrifying but no surprise. This is a Cerberus shell company. Make it easier to get any 'packages' through transport security. Plus these are heavy duty. Probably soundproof, designed to fool scanners." He sighed and moved away from the crate.

"Efficiency sure as hell doesn't make it right though." Shepard looked over at the soldier.

"No greyness to this for you Jacob? Or is that for anything?" Jacob shook his head, his eyes focused on the logo.

"If that were true I wouldn't have joined Cerberus. They were willing to do something to fight the Collectors and the Reapers. They had to do it illegally but…it's like Mordin said. Hard to see the big picture behind a pile of corpses."

Jack had been quiet during the whole exchange but had listened attentively nonetheless. Bringing out her shotgun, she slotted in a fresh thermal clip and looked down the hallway leading further into the facility.

"If you two ladies are done we can go now." They both chuckled lightly and returned to the task at hand.

As they moved through the facility, Jack had more and more memories of what she had endured here. At first they were little things not worth mentioning. When they had come across the makeshift fighting ring, she had stopped.

"They used to make us fight here. Condition us with drugs and pain. You fight, you get to feel happy. Like it was some fucking privilege to them." She spat on the ring's center, her body glowing faintly with her biotics.

"Well, must have sucked to be the other kids when you were in the ring." Jacob's comment made Jack laugh. To him it sounded hollow, to her it was genuine.

"I was their favorite. Always brought me out to bash their heads in. Always had to use biotics though. The punch that kills them better be glowing blue or it was another round of testing for me." Her biotics flared briefly, illuminating a series of long dried bloodstains on the floor.

"Fucking idiots." She looked on ahead and spotted a varren corpse.

"Wait a minute, that's a fresh kill." Shepard moved over to the corpse and looked it over.

"Very fresh. A couple hours at most. Since I'm presuming we haven't been reminiscing on the good old days for two hours…"

"That means we aren't alone here."

"Bingo Jacob. Now the question becomes who would want to be here?" Jacob paused, taking his time to answer the question.

"Beats the fuck out of me. When I escaped, I destroyed everything I could see. I would have brought this damn place down myself if I wasn't busy being shot at."

"All that could be here is old data about human biotics. We'd have likely found something better by now with less cruel means. So we either have someone interested in that or just scavengers."

And sure enough, right about then was when one of the scavengers decided to show up.

"Humans! Leave or die! This is Blood Pack territory now!" Jack didn't give the Vorcha a moment to react as she blasted him near point blank in the face.

"Well that answers today's hot question. Incendiary rounds everybody, we're not giving them a chance to regen."

The trip from there was largely the same. Now with the Blood Pack presence discovered, the ground team quickly relaxed into their combat rolls and used their skills to wipe out the hostile forces. It didn't take much effort from there to reach the outside of Jack's cell, making her stop again as she stared at the black window.

"It's a two way mirror. A fucking two way mirror. I'd pound and yell all day and they never looked up at me." Jacob chuckled, surprisingly enough.

"Probably for the best. Imagine the fear they'd have when you'd flip them off and call them every dirty name in the book. In every language as well." Despite her somber mood, Jack laughed hard at that.

"They'd probably piss themselves every few seconds."

"They'd run dry before noon." She grinned at him, giving him a friendly punch in the arm, and resuming her walk. Jacob joined her and Shepard, after smiling at the two of them, followed as well.

The memories that went by from there were met with painful reminders and calming words. By the time they reached the Blood Pack leader, Jack had a little more peace with her torture than she had when she first escaped. The Krogan leader spoke into his comm, though they were too far away to hear what the person on the other end was saying.

"Aresh, it's Kureck. You want these looters gone, we need to talk credits…You said there would be salvage here…Fine. But afterwards, I'm going in and we're talking credits." He turned off his comm and looked to the ground team.

"Spoiler alert, you guys are fucked." Jack's comment brought a chuckle out of Shepard and Jacob.

"We'll see about that weakling." He drew his shotgun and the fight began.

* * *

><p>Jack took her time walking back to her cell. She ran her hands along the walls in a contemplative silence. Jacob and Shepard stood nearby, only briefly looking away at the fleeing form of Aresh. Her hands stopped at a large, long dried blood splatter on the wall.<p>

"This was my first kill. My guard outside my room. He pulled out his gun and was ready to kill me. Guess who won that fight?" Her hands stopped at the center of the splatter.

"I crushed his head in here. He didn't get to scream or cry. It was just gone for him." She looked into her old room one last time. She saw the desk she hid under, the bed she tied herself to, and the window that no one else ever saw through but her.

She took a deep breath, and then set the bomb down.

* * *

><p><em>I'll do the aftermath bit in the next chapter. For now, I hope you enjoyed my portrayals of these characters.<em>

_To clear things up, I'm not trying to pair them here. It seems like it, but no I'll leave their relationships to canon. _

_This was an attempt to add more characterization to Jack. Most stories I've read (granted most of those focused on Talimancing) had her character relatively unchanging. Still profane, still angry, still powerful. _

_Do I think I've succeeded in my attempts? Yes. Do you? That's for you to decide._

_Right now, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and all that. Enjoy yourself and those you love._

_Keelah se'lai!_

_Ciao_


	18. Hunters

_PSN was down at the time I first began writing this chapter. Made me unable to import my custom world state into Inquisition. Which by the by is an awesome game. _

_Any of you having trouble with the import? I can get it to import, but I can't select when I'm picking a new character. Unless it's called Default World State in which case, let me know please._

_Anyway, this is Samara's loyalty mission here. This was another one I liked and fortunately, this one is a good opportunity for more Talimancing. _

_Cause that's all I'm good at. Ha ha ha._

_Anyway, next up is Heretic Station as planned. Read and review!_

_Ciao_

* * *

><p>To Shepard, Samara had become the kind of friend he could get used to having. It was more than her wisdom, her power, and her sparkling personality though. It was ultimately the reminder of what he wanted to be.<p>

Someone who saw everything in a simple black and white perspective.

He remembered how he felt when he saw Garrus as Archangel. No complications to his job, just find criminals and kill them. If Shepard had had a chance to do that after Mindoir and Elysium, he would have.

Still, with the way things turned out in his life, he couldn't complain that much. Dying was still not a pleasant topic but at least he had some small comforts. Such as right now where his Quarian girlfriend was snoozing peacefully in his lap. It was a nice reversal of their situation back on the shuttle to the old Broker's ship. Granted she hadn't had any sleep for a week like he did but he still didn't mind.

With her helmet naturally blocking any hair she may have had, he simply patted along her hood. He had the brief thought that it was made of some kind of sensory material when she seemed to enjoy the affectionate action. The adorable sound she made in reply however dissuaded any thinking in favor of simply being a good boyfriend.

So he stayed silent, keeping his eyes on the fish in his cabin as Tali continued to sleep peacefully. At least until an electronic disruption occurred.

"Shepard, Samara would like to speak with you." EDI's voice shattered the silence, making Shepard release an angry huff.

"Very well EDI. Thank you." The AI's avatar blinked away and Shepard returned his attention to Tali. Unfortunately, she would not be getting a 4 hour nap in his lap as he had in hers. Reluctantly, he woke her up with a gentle nudge.

"Tali, you're about to hate me, surprising I know, but I need to get up now." The Quarian shifted beneath him, moving over onto her back and opening her eyes to look up at him.

"Whatever you need to get up for isn't as important as being my pillow." Chuckling, Shepard bent down to press a kiss to her hood.

"Sorry beautiful, but duty calls. If it helps you can pull me away from it when I'm done by a leash and I'll be your pillow once more." Giggling, she moved out of his lap and sat beside him.

"Keelah can you imagine that? What would be the first thing the crew would think?"

"Likely the fact that you have a leash in addition to your shotgun." She laughed, giving him a playful shove.

"Bosh'tet."

"Thank you. If you're still here, I'll resume my service. Otherwise, always a pleasure Miss Zorah." He grinned and stood up, giving her a salute and heading out the elevator.

The elevator stopped at the Crew Deck and the Commander exited out, moving towards Samara's room. The doors opened automatically when he neared the entrance, revealing the simple room's interior. Since she had moved in, Samara had changed little about the room. She didn't even elect to sit on the couches available, instead choosing to sit cross-legged on the floor. He stood in the doorway, knowing that she knew he was there and simply waiting for her to address him.

"Shepard. Thank you for coming." He smiled at her and moved to her side.

"Well I usually tend to check in when Asari Justicars give me a ring. Maybe it's a human thing though." She smiled and stood up, moving to the large window in the room.

"Do you remember how we met Shepard?" He made a show of thinking about it.

"Hmm…yes I think it was 30 centuries ago to the day. Something involving polka if memory serves." She looked at him, her eyes showing that she knew he was being mirthful, but it wasn't the time for that.

"Alright alright, point made. You were hunting down a dangerous criminal and I helped you find what ship she left Illium for it. I'm at least good at serving as a memory board." She nodded at him and returned her attention to the stars.

"I have found the ship. It has docked at Omega and she will likely remain there."

"Long enough for you to pop her head off?" At that, Samara glared at him, he returning it with a smirk.

"Yes. We will need to find Morinth and I will kill her." Shepard nodded, moving to leave to let Joker know of the course.

"Shepard. There is one other thing." Her words stopped him. "This killer…she is my daughter."

"Well, that puts a damper on an otherwise delightful evening. For what little it's worth, you have my sympathies."

"They are appreciated but unneeded. Morinth has made her choices. As a Justicar, I must take action on them." He moved back to her side and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Okay hold up. What makes a Justicar so special from any crime fighter? Aside from the fact that the Asari don't stop you anyway."

"Justicars must stop crime and corruption wherever they see it. It is what our order stands for. No one is exempt from our Code."

"Informative, but that doesn't tell me everything. If Morinth is so dangerous, should she not have been caught by now? Or does this warrant your attention?" She shook her head.

"Morinth is an Ardat-Yakshi. They are a certain kind of Asari and frowned upon in our society."

"I'm going to assume it's for being murderers."

"When an Asari mates with another, there is a gentle melding of the minds of the individuals involved. With an Ardat-Yakshi, their mind overpowers yours and leaves you dead. When an Asari is revealed to be an Ardat-Yakshi, they are given a choice. Spend their lives in a monastery, or death." Shepard chuckled, shaking his head at her words.

"Imprisonment or death. What a charming decision. I'll have to remember that the next time I'm being lectured about Asari supremacy." Samara glared at him again.

"If they refuse either choice, they run and they kill. Ardat-Yakshi leave behind astronomical body counts." Shepard sighed roughly and leaned against the window.

"See it from my perspective Samara. This doesn't sound nice no matter what spin you put on it. However, Morinth is a killer and that we can't ignore. So my moral objections aside, we'll set a course for Omega immediately. Fair?" She nodded at him and he took his leave, moving back into the elevator. He took it back up to his quarters, informing Joker via the intercom of the new destination along the way. Despite the different sides he and Samara were on in their conversation, he did see things from her perspective. Regardless of personal obligations, Morinth was a threat to the galaxy and needed to be stopped.

The elevator doors opened to his reveal the foyer of his cabin. He briefly looked at the walls and thought that, while it wasn't exactly an ideal spot for décor, damn if the bland walls didn't instill the idea that whoever was in that room was a boring bastard. Shrugging to himself, he headed inside and found Tali still there. She was fiddling with something on her omni-tool, likely a new combat tech upgrade he assumed. He allowed himself a moment of simple observation as he watched her fingers move across the holographic device. He had been privileged enough to feel those fingers entwined with his own a few times now and knew the things she could do with them were extraordinary. Sparing a glance to his own hand, rough and damaged from a life of conflict, even after his return, he wondered just how the two were ever compatible. He returned his attention to Tali and decided that it really didn't matter.

He was happy, and so was she. That was all that mattered.

He announced his presence by sitting at her side, quickly causing her to look at him in surprise. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close.

"Sorry for spying. Also we're on our way to Omega. We'll be there in a few hours. Suggestions to pass the time?" She smiled and moved her head back into his lap without a word.

"No argument here."

* * *

><p>They had gathered the clues they needed to lure Morinth out. All that remained now was executing the plan. But they had to lure out a professional killer, one who had been at this for hundreds of years, and then resist them long enough for Samara to kill Morinth. It wasn't an easy task and though the members of the ground team had come to trust Samara, none had immediately leapt up to volunteer their services.<p>

Shepard could have just ordered someone to do it. They wouldn't have liked it probably, but they'd have done it. What Shepard had done for them all so far was payment enough in a way. So it naturally came as a surprise when it was Shepard himself who volunteered to be the bait. Objections were quick to arise and were quick to be shot down.

"Your objections are noted and disregarded. Regardless of whatever merits you have, none of you will be used as the bait here." Further complaints arose again and he held up a hand to silence them.

"That is also an order. Y'know, those things a commanding officer can give to make people do something regardless of what they say in opposition to it. So stuff it and get back to work. Dismissed." There were naturally some grumbles from those exiting, soon leaving the room empty excluding Shepard, Tali, Garrus and Samara.

"Shepard, I'm sorry to doubt you again but one of us should go in instead. The galaxy needs you more than it needs us." Shepard narrowed his eyes at his Turian friend.

"Okay Archangel, you go in and see what happens." Garrus glared at the Commander but turned silent.

"Glad you see things my way." He turned to Samara. "I'll see you outside the VIP section Samara. We'll go over what we know one last time before we begin." The Justicar nodded and left the room, leaving the three there. Garrus kept quiet so he looked at Tali.

"Is there really no other way John?" Shepard sighed and moved to her, pulling her close. She quickly wrapped her arms around him tightly.

"It's sudden, and we didn't have much time to plan. But look at it this way. You get to see your flawless boyfriend blunder through the art of seduction." She laughed, but it rang hollow. He tightened his hold on her and she leaned her forehead against his, simply closing her eyes and trying to stay in this moment as long as she could.

"Please be careful _Atra_." He chuckled and pulled back enough from her to look into her eyes.

"That better mean smartass or something else that perfectly encapsulates me." She smiled, pressed her forehead against his own briefly and left. Shepard smiled all the while until his attention was turned back to Garrus.

"You know we're going to follow you right?" Shepard grinned.

"I damn well hope so! I'm going to go seduce a killer. If Morinth doesn't kill me, Tali will!" Garrus laughed, shaking his head at his friend.

* * *

><p>The pulsing beats of Afterlife's VIP section made Shepard's head spin. He could see a few dozen people of varying species filled around the club doing…well just about everything short of eating the people around them.<p>

_No wait, there goes a couple Turians into a private room. Well it's a certain kind of eating._

He chuckled to himself, hearing a passing human rave about some band for an Asari. Based on his fervor, he must have **really** wanted to get into the blue girl.

"_Morinth's body speaks to you on many levels." _Samara's words echoed in his memory and it made him pause. He moved back to the human and did some inquiring. The human's eyes were bloodshot, his clothing was messy and skin sweaty.

_Either drugged, dancing a lot, or the guest of honor sunk her fangs into him. Expel 10 though eh?_

Leaving the human, Shepard moved out of the public's eye to do some research on the band. As he found out, being hidden in a club can be a tad difficult. Especially when a Krogan has decided to box you in.

"Tell me something human. What would you be doing here away from everyone else." Shepard knew that wasn't a question, and based on the Krogan's armor he was likely one of Aria's goons.

"The truth? Not fond of crowds. Trying to fix that by coming to places like this. Probably could have picked better but hey, I'm working on it." The Krogan was silent as he thought this over, though he eventually relented and stepped aside. Shepard moved his hand off his Incinerate program in turn and rejoined the crowd.

_Now comes the fun part. Attract some attention Shepard…there's a Turian hitting on an Asari dancer. Unsuccessfully. She looks more angry than bored. At 10, there's another Krogan at a bar. Surpass a Krogan…would a simple fight do? 9, two Turians in medium strength armor. Here together, but there's no drinks at their table. Odd place to have a meeting but this is Omega…thugs then. They've probably got concealed firearms or even biotics. Friendly dissuasion it is. And because I'm going to rub this in their faces, Garrus and Tali at 3 trying to look like a couple. Oh Garrus, I am so going to kill you if you charm her. _

Cracking his knuckles, he got to work. One bludgeoned Turian, two Turians trying not to look like they were running away and a miffed Krogan later and he received a tap on his shoulder.

"My name is Morinth. You're the most interesting person I've seen this night."

"Your standards must be high then." She smiled, this perfected little thing that likely would have sent a shiver into anyone under her thrall as she led him to her booth

_It begins. Sorry Tali._

* * *

><p><em>Somehow, facing down Saren on Virmire was less unnerving than this. I really wish I were a biotic right about now.<em>

Shepard took a moment to look around Morinth's apartment, mostly for anything he could use as a weapon if the need arose. The swords were a possibility, but they were likely for show or had lost their edge long ago. Not to mention this was Morinth's lair. It was likely she hid a variety of weapons and she was a biotic. Still, appearances mattered so he took a seat across from her. The chatter began, each line he returned making him cringe internally. When she moved into his lap, he found himself gritting his teeth.

Fortunately, that was about the time where Samara entered.

It was all a bit of a blur from there. Words were exchanged, heads were crushed, and for one moment the invincible shield of Samara broke. In that moment, he saw the pain only a mother could experience. He rested a comforting hand on her shoulder and together, they grieved. She did not cry, but no tears were needed here.

The doors opened again, this time with Garrus and Tali stepping through. They quickly put the pieces together and moved to leave. Samara stopped them, pulling Shepard's hand off her gently.

"I would like to be alone Shepard. I will rejoin you in a moment." He nodded and the three left the Justicar.

After they had exited the apartment block, Tali entwined her hand with Shepard's silently. He gave hers a firm squeeze, the simple gesture conveying his emotional state to her clearly. The walk back to the Normandy's dock was much the same from there. A silence that spoke volumes.

The two parted as the airlock door opened, a hushed request passing between them. In the late hours of the metaphorical day, that request was honored. Tali stepped into Shepard's cabin, finding him sitting on the couch with his back to the wall. She sat beside him, holding his hand again.

"You had to do it Sirus." He didn't respond, instead only lowering his head.

"I don't blame you. I know you want me to forgive you for it but you did nothing wrong." She moved into his lap, resting his head under her own. His hands ached to be at their place, around her waist. But he hadn't earned that.

"Take your time my _Atra._"

_How long will you wait for me to forgive myself Tali?_

* * *

><p><em>In some of the stories I've read on here, authors use their own Quarian words in their stories. They are usually meant for affection or anger. I'm fond of <em>Khe'sahya_ from the story _Against All Odds _by _The Gentleman Without A Hat_. Personally I found it difficult making one of my own._

_I'll spare you reading about my process but it wasn't easy. The first one I had planned I realized 3 hours later sounded like Intai'sei which made me feel like a rip-off…guy. I won't say artist cause I am clearly not one._

_Either way, there's my own Quarian word. Man, somebody should compile a list sometime. I guess the meaning is just affection. Nothing deep. Not yet anyway._

_Anyway, next up is Heretic Station._

_Ciao_


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